


A Growing Pride

by CarcinoKattastic



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Babies, But In Space, F/M, Lance cant keep a secret to save his life, M/M, Mallura, Minor Hunk/Shay (Voltron), Parenthood, Parenthood AU, Pregnancy, SHIDGE, eventual original chatacters, everyone gets a baby, klance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-23
Updated: 2017-08-09
Packaged: 2018-09-19 11:28:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 20
Words: 27,241
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9438194
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CarcinoKattastic/pseuds/CarcinoKattastic
Summary: Everything was going fine for Pidge in space, her father was back at home with her mother and she was fighting the Galra Empire with her friends and her brother by her side. Her world came tumbling down when she found out that she was pregnant with Shiro's baby! Should she keep the baby and raise it while still remaining a paladin? Should she tell Shiro that it's his?





	1. 'Plus signs are not always positive'

**Author's Note:**

> So this is a thing I wrote... I'm sorry. It was really fun to write and I do hope you enjoy the weird idea I came up with while I was at work.
> 
> Thanks to my friend Dragonetgirl for proof reading this for me and convincing me I should post it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This fic was planned and mostly written before the release of Season 3 so the timeline is only slightly different with everyone remaining with their original lions.

Plus signs never meant anything good in medicine. In math a plus sign next to a number meant add or positive, and when it came to grades a plus meant better than average but in medicine it was never a good thing. You would never hear someone say ‘Yay I tested positive for a deadly illness.’ The only exception for this was maybe positive on a pregnancy test, if you were trying, but for Pidge this positive was probably the worst thing imaginable.

She had found the test in the bottom of the ‘Lady Care Package’ her mother had made her when they visited Earth, to drop off her now rescued father and brother, a month ago. Sure space could mess up a cycle but Pidge had never been this late in the last couple of years or so that she’d been in space fighting the Galra Empire. Plus there was also all the food she’d been craving over the last week. Taking this pregnancy test was a slight joke to herself, she thought there was no way she could be pregnant. Yet here she was, leaning against the large cold metal of the Green Lion’s paw, staring at this plastic stick with that little red cross of dread. 

“Fuck Green… What am I gonna do?” She looked up at the large robot that loomed over her. 

Pidge leaned forward again to think. She vaguely remembered the night they left Earth again. The team had just defeated the Galra that threatened their home and there was a festival to celebrate. She was given the package from her mother, Matt had agreed to continue to explore the universe with them and then some drinking happened, she took a guy back to her room in the castle… and the rest was gone, completely erased from her memory in every way shape and form.

“Hey Pidge!” Hunk shouted through the open door. She jumped, fumbling with the pregnancy test before quickly shoving it up her sleeve.

“Yeah..?” Pidge called back, trying not to show her surprise.

“Dinner's ready,” He gave that warm Hunk smile that could melt every trouble.

“Oh cool,” She stood up and straightened her hoodie, walking towards him.

Hunk gestured for her to go first, letting her lead the way to the dining area. Pidge gave him a small smile, trying to keep the test hidden from him. As they walked down the hall, Pidge began to think of what kind of food Hunk had made, completely losing track of her hold on the test.

“Oh Pidge you dro-” Hunk started to speak as he bent down to pick up what she had dropped. He froze as he touched it and realised what it was, “Pidge? Is this?”

“Okay Hunk, please don’t freak out. I can explain everything, just calm down and whatever you do, do not tell Lance,’ Pidge said, trying to keep him calm even though she could tell he’s very much freaking out.

“Don’t tell Lance what?” Lance said, stepping up behind Pidge, his blue lion shaped mug clasped in his hands.

“Nothing. Tell you nothing because nothing is going on… Right Hunk?” Pidge nervously floundered as she nudged Hunk, hoping for support.

Sweat dropped from Hunk’s brow as Lance and Pidge looked at him expectantly, the pressure was too much, “Pidge is pregnant!”

“Hunk!” Pidge turned to him, shocked and angry, completely missing Lance almost choke on his drink.

“I’m sorry! You know I’m not good under pressure!” said Hunk, defending himself.

“You’re knocked up? Who's the father?” Lance sputtered, still recovering from his near death experience.

“Yes and… I don’t know…” Pidge responded, looking down at her feet and scratching her head, “I literally just found out and I don’t want anyone else to know. I have to figure this all out first okay? Promise neither of you will say anything.”

Hunk nodded quickly while Lance frowned lightly.

“Lance!”

“Okay Okay! I promise,” He held his free hand up in defence.

Hunk gave a soft sigh and a smile, urging the two to follow him to the dining area. Everyone else was waiting patiently for them. Shiro smiled and gave Pidge a small wave as she walked into the room, halting his conversation with Coran and Matt to do so. Pidge did the same, barely noticing the soft blush dusting her cheeks, which caused Lance to raise a brow at her. Hunk reached for his usual seat at the table, it was probably one of the softest due to the padding he had added, something he had yet to do to the other chairs around the long table.

“Woah woah woah! Hunk you can’t sit there, Pidge is preggers, let her have the soft seat for once,” Lance frowned at Hunk for a moment before it suddenly dawned on him what he said.

Slowly Pidge squeezed the bridge of her nose between her index finger and thumb, muttering softly to herself, “This is why I didn’t want you to know…”

Matt and Shiro both stood up at the same time, both in complete sync as they spoke, “What?!”

Matt was the first to rush over to his sister’s side, taking her hand and bombarding her with questions, “Who did this to you? How long have you known? When did this happen? Do You need to sit down? Do you need water? I’ll go get you some water!”

“Matt please… I don’t know who the guy is, I left him back on Earth when we were last there. I just found out. Yes I would like a seat and some water…” She spoke calmly, taking her usual seat, not making eye contact with anyone around her.

Allura and Coran both looked around the room confused, watching Shiro’s face become angry for some reason and Lance beg for forgiveness while Hunk began to get panicky and Keith just stared.

“Would someone care to explain?” Allura spoke up, her voice calm and soothing amongst the chaos.

“Pidge is… Having a baby…” Shiro said with a frustrated sigh, “I’m gonna make sure Matt isn’t trying to throw himself out the airlock…”

Allura watched him step out of the room, fists clenched, before turning her attention to Pidge, “Well then… We better give you a full examination in one of the medical pods… See what options we have.”

Pidge was thankful for her calm composure and warm smile, “Thank you Allura…”


	2. Possibilities

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After being given her options, Pidge heads back to her room to think and finds a shirt that reminds her of who the father of her child may be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welp here we go again with another fun chapter of 'A Growing Pride'. It's weird to think almost 300 people read the first chapter and actually liked it. Hope everyone enjoys this chapter!

“I’m glad we managed to get as much human medical information as we did when we visited Earth,” Allura said, calmly typing away on the bright blue panel. She was focusing on Pidge, who stood in the healing pod as it scanned her, both girls completely ignoring the panicking boys around them.

“But are you sure you even have enough, like what if the baby is killing her? What do we do then?” Matt said, panic filling his voice as he watched Pidge through the glass.

“Shiro,” Allura commanded, looking at him out the corner of her eye.

Shiro got exactly what she meant and went about calming Matt’s nerves, trying to give Allura peace to work. When he didn't settle down, Shiro simply just lifted him up and carried him out of the room. Matt kicked and screamed, spewing nonsense about Eclampsia and a few other prenatal diseases.

“So how is she Allura?” Hunk said, his voice full of concern as he fiddled with his own fingers.

“According to the pod, she's perfectly healthy and one month pregnant…” said Allura in response, her eyes fixated on the screen in front of her as she let Pidge out of the pod.

“What are my options Allura?” Pidge said the moment she was steady on her feet, “Do I have to do something extensive to become unpregnant?”

Allura typed away for a moment, “Well we do have a similar procedure for abortions as to the one you humans have but it will take a few weeks to prepare the pod for it and you might be out of action for a few days after… Gives you time to decide…”

Keith made a light scoff noise, “she can't exactly be a pregnant paladin though.”

“As a matter of fact, the old red paladin was a mother of four. According to the textbook we have, the human pregnancy is a bit longer than an Altean one, but still she only ever took a couple months off from her duties,” Coran said, beaming wide and holding up a finger.

 

Pidge gave a small nod, completely ignoring Keith's comment, “Okay, thanks again Allura.”

Lance took a step forward to say something but was quickly shut down by a death glare from Pidge as she left to go back to her own room. 

She sat on her bed and brought her knees close to her chest. The intellectual in her was saying that the choice was obvious, she couldn't successfully defend the universe with a kid on her hip that would be insane, but there was that small voice, that sat deep in the back of her head, whispering to her about how she could totally raise a kid and still be the Green Lion’s paladin. Pidge could totally pull off being a badass single mother, fighting bad guys and then helping her kids out with their math homework.

Pidge inhaled slowly, curling up a little tighter. Who even was this mystery guy she had slept with? How did she even manage to get a guy to sleep with her? She looked like a fourteen year old boy. There was no way she was grown up enough to raise any sort of child. She looked up at the long floor length mirror in her room for a second before standing up to get a better look at herself.

When had she gotten so… grown up looking? Her baggy green hoodie was no longer as baggy as she remembered it to be, she had a slight figure and a sleeker face. When had her hair grown down to her shoulders? In fact, not only did she look older, her whole outlook on life and the universe had changed since she first left home. Her intelligence had grown, she’d learned to be strong, be more independent. There was still so much to explore and understand but, compared to when she was younger, she knew that this kind of change and experience would never fully stop. She had grown up a lot in the last couple of years since she’d been out in space with the guys. Hell she was eighteen now an actual grown up. Maybe she was able to handle raising a child… Maybe she was ready to be strong for someone else and not just for herself...

Her thoughts were very rudely interrupted by a certain Blue Paladin barging into her room like it was nothing. Lance gave a horrified gasp when he saw the state of the room she kept. All sorts of different ‘souvenirs’ from the various planets they had visited covered every inch of her room, along with clothes and a bunch of loose scrap metal from her different robot projects.

“Pidge! How are you living like this? How do you exact to raise a child in a… mess like this dude,” he said, his face screwed up a little with disgust.

“Lance, I haven't decided if I'm keeping the baby yet. And go away,” Pidge frowned, pulling her hair up into a hair tie that she found lying around.

“Still! We gotta clean this up… I'm worried for the health of our little mama bear,” Lance placed a hand on his heart, giving her those big puppy eyes and quivering lip he always did to try and get his way.

With a groan she accepted his request and began picking stuff up to put away, “I don't have space for this stuff…”

“We’ll put it in a different room if you’re desperate to keep it,” he shrugged, starting to pick up anything but her dirty clothes.

After a while of the two working together to move everything unneeded out of Pidge's room and to clean up, they finally only had one small pile of clothes and miscellaneous pieces of tech. Since Lance refused to touch any of Pidge’s filthy clothes, he set her to do the task while he went to get them refreshments, saying something along the lines of ‘you have to stay hydrated for the baby’ though Pidge wasn't paying much attention.

As she began to sort through the pile something caught her attention. A thin white shirt, that could probably fit three of her in it, stuck out like a sore thumb in amongst the greys and greens. Carefully, Pidge pulled the shirt from the pile, not wanting the pile to crumble and end up all over the floor.

Pidge remembered Shiro mentioning that he was missing a shirt from the night they left Earth again. He also had a mystery person join him in the castle that night and had brushed off his missing shirt to her maybe accidentally picking it away when she rushed off in the morning. So what was it doing here? 

Suddenly Pidge’s heart sank as memories of the night in question suddenly came flooding back to her. The handsome man she had somehow wooed into coming home with her that night… Oh my God was is Shiro? Her mind raced as she tried to think of every reasonable explanation as to why Shiro’s shirt was in her room and nothing else made any sense.

‘No, no,’ she thought to herself as she stood up, ‘There is no way you slept with Shiro, calm down Pidge… The medical records from earlier plus the records of Shiro that are on the castle’s system will surely prove that you are just being crazy!’

Pidge marched off to the computers beside the medical pods, determined to set her mind at ease and prove that Shiro was not the father of the child she was carrying.


	3. Results

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pidge and Lance learn who the father is and Pidge struggles to decide whether or not to tell him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh boy! Seems a lot of people seem to like this (for some reason) so here is the third chapter. I really love the the idea of Lance knowing every secret because he's just always in the right place at the right time.   
> Any ways hope you guys enjoy this one as well!

This was not happening. There was no way this was happening. The computer must be glitched out, making a mistake. Cross referencing the DNA of the foetus and Shiro… it was almost a perfect match, aside of course from the parts that were Pidge.

“No… no…” she mumbled, her slim fingers frantically typing away to find some error in the code, “no…”

Pidge sat back in her seat, rubbing her forehead hard, listening to the soft humming of one of the medical pods prepping for her abortion procedure. Her legs pulled up to her chest again as she thought. Shiro was the father of the child that she wasn't even sure she wanted. 

So focused in thought, Pidge didn't notice that she wasn't alone. Lance, who apparently was always in the right place at the right time, walked up behind her with two mugs. He casually looked at the screen as he approached, almost losing his hold on the mugs.

“Holy shit… Shiro’s the dad?!” Lance exclaimed, causing Pidge to jump and almost fall out of her seat.

“Jesus, Lance! Are you fucking everywhere?” She scowled at him, reaching to hide what she was looking at.

“I try…” he carefully handed her a mug before going to get a seat for himself, “I already saw Gunderson, no point in trying to hide it.”

Pidge frowned and looked at the warm steam that radiated out the top of her mug.

“So Shiro is the baby daddy. You gonna tell him?” Lance loudly sipped his drink, crossing one of his slender legs over the other.

“Of course I'm gonna tell him… I just have to figure out how…” she looked up at him, “if you tell him I will end you…”

“I promise this time my lips are sealed! No one will know,” he crossed his heart with his free hand, staring her dead in the eyes.

Pidge gave a small nod and turned her attention back to the screen, her mind racing with the all the thoughts and ideas. Shiro was without a doubt the father of her baby. Was she gonna be able to tell him? She had to right? So they could make the decision on whether or not to keep it together.

Her heart sank again. What if he didn't want to have a baby with her? What if he would hate her if she kept it?

“I think… I'm gonna go to bed,” Pidge said softly, standing up. 

“Sleep well, Mama bear. My lips are sealed on who the baby daddy is,~” Lance flashed her one of his shit eating grins as she got all the data off the screen.

“Please don't call me Mama Bear…” she mumbled as she left the room.

Pidge slowly walked down the halls on the castle, sipping her warm tea that Lance had brought her. Her thoughts were still racing fast around her brain as a sudden wave of nausea swept over her. She halted her steps and leaned against a wall as she felt her stomach turn harshly. Uh oh…

Almost dropping her mug, Pidge ran to find the nearest room with a bathroom, not paying attention at all to whose room it was or if anyone was in it. Acid filled her throat as she quickly dropped her mug into the sink and began to throw up into the toilet bowl of this random bathroom.

It took a few minutes but once she was done she sat back and gave a deep sigh. Pidge grabbed some toilet paper from the side to wipe her mouth. She slowly stood and flushed, feeling probably the worst she has ever felt in her life.

There was a knock on the door, followed by a soothing deep voice, “Hey Pidge, are you okay?”

Because of course this had to be Shiro’s bathroom.

“Uh yeah…” she slowly opened the door, “sorry, I just picked a room…”

“Hey it's no problem, you’re pregnant this stuff happens,” he gave her a warm smile, “I'm just glad it wasn't on my floor or anything.”

Pidge gave a small nod and a weak smile. This was her chance to just tell him the truth. She opened and closed her mouth a few times before she eventually brought up the nerve to start.

“Shiro there is something I have to-” she began but was cut off by Shiro raising his metal hand.

“I know what you’re gonna say,” he put his hand down and smiled again, “I’ll tell Matt for you if you choose to keep the baby. Can't have him trying to jump out the ship again.”

“Uh yeah… thanks,” she nodded softly, looking up at him.

“I know it's your own decision and I don't know the guy who is the father but, if it were me, I’d want you to keep it,” he gave her a light pat on the shoulder, “I think you can do it.”

Pidge smiled up at him, a dark blush covering her pale freckled face, “I’m still thinking on it but… thanks for having faith in me.”

“Hey, I'm not the only one, we all think the same.”

She kept her wide smile as she said her thank yous to him and left. She pretty much skipped back down the hall, in a rather cheerful mood after what Shiro had said to her. Sure she still wasn't dead set on keeping the baby but her confidence in the idea was growing. Plus… Shiro didn't have to know just yet that the baby was his right away… right?


	4. The Old Red Paladin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pidge struggles to decide on whether or not she should keep the baby while Allura and Coran tell the tales of the previous Red Lion Paladin and Lance continues to be the worst secret keeper in the universe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we go! Yet another good chapter of 'Pride' for you all to enjoy. It's really weird getting comments from people saying that they are waiting for the next chapter especially because this idea came from pure boredom and I only started writing it as a way to explore different character relationships in different situations but I'm glad people have enjoyed it so far and I hope people enjoy this chapter as well!

No one saw Pidge for the majority of the next day, after getting up and grabbing a quick breakfast, she locked herself inside the Green Lion’s hanger. She busied herself with upgrading the giant metallic cat, only stepping out once to go to the bathroom and throw up. The others made attempts to get her to come out, Matt even went as far as to try and sneak in through one of the vents to find it locked from Pidge’s side and that she was wearing her headphones so he couldn't be heard.

“I'm sure she's fine, she just needs time to think,” Hunk tried to reason with everyone, not doing well to hide his own worry.

“Doesn't mean she has to lock herself away,” Keith said, folding his arms over his chest, “we have to run drills.”

“Keith. Life isn't all about drills, Pidge has a lot going on,” Said Shiro, a large frown placed on his face as he looked over the panicked people around him.

“But Shiro! Katie shouldn't be doing this on her own, she needs me, I mean us, to comfort her and help her remember the asshole who did this to her,” Matt protested, wiping the dust off his shoulders.

“I know you want to find this guy and I agree if we find him we should teach him a lesson, but he’s on Earth and Pidge clearly doesn't want to think about him,” Shiro put his hands on his hips, “So we should leave her alone for now.”

Lance gave an irritated sigh, shifting from his space leaning on the wall, “guess there is no point hanging around. Coming Keith?”

Lance wiggled an eyebrow at Keith who scowled back. It was common knowledge amongst the team that Keith and Lance we kind of dating, if you asked Lance they were but if you asked Keith he would sometimes say yes and other times say no, it got complicated sometimes. In response to Lance’s eyebrow wiggle, Keith walked towards the training room leaving his kind of boyfriend pouting.

“Fine then…” Lance moped off in another direction, quickly followed by Hunk.

Shiro gave a soft sigh and looked at Matt, “come on buddy…”

\---

Lance was practicing his cartwheels next to Hunk, as he sketched up a random blueprint for what looked to be a crib. Yeah Hunk was the build it until it worked kind of guy but you can't just throw some stuff together to make a crib and hope it works.

“You do know our resident Mama Bear hasn't decided yet right?” Said Lance, doing a quick jump before rolling into a cart wheel.

“I know but… it's just got me thinking about some stuff,” Hunk said shyly, “and if she does decide to keep it, she will need one.”

The classic shit eating grin Lance had once again dressed his face as he walked over to Hunk.

“You’re thinking about having kids with Shay right now aren't you?” He said, the teasing tone he took made Hunk frown and go a deep shade of red.

“What? No! Maybe… I just miss her is all,” Hunk bumbled over his words, trying to hide his face from Lance who grew closer.

“Aww how sweet! Well at least Shay would tell you right away if she was having your kids, if it worked that way, unlike Pidge who has locked herself away instead of telling Shiro….” Said Lance, shrugging lightly and crossing his arms before his eye went wide as he realised what he said.

“Wait, Shiro’s the dad?!” Exclaimed Hunk, dropping his blueprint book and pencil and he stood up.

“Shit! Hunk! Keep it down, I wasn't supposed to tell anyone! It slipped out, please don't tell Pidge I told you!” Lance pleaded, stepping closer to Hunk and holding his hands together.

“Lance… this is why Pidge doesn't trust you with anything…” Hunk picked up his things, “I can't believe it though, Pidge and Shiro…”

“Well they would make a cute couple,” Lance chimed in, giving a weak smile only to have it shot down by Hunk’s glare.

“Are you sure she won't tell him?”

“She said she would, but she's locked herself up in her hanger all day and knowing how she is with Shiro she’ll panic whenever she tries to tell him,” Lance frowned a little.

Hunk gave a small sigh, “well we can't tell him, or anyone that we know this. Pidge will kill us, not to mention what it will do to Shiro.”

“Yeah you’re right… I won't let it happen again,” He nodded in response.

Hunk sat back down and continued his little blue print, “what do you think for like a mobile for the crib? Space rocks and little pieces of tech?”

“What? Fuck no. Next place we land I’ll find some fabric and make little toy lions for it,” Lance smiled, sitting next to Hunk.

\----

Pidge did eventually come out of the Green Lion’s hanger, tired and hungry from constantly working all day without any decent break. She hadn't wanted to leave, she had too much on her mind and didn't think the rest of the team would really be of any help, especially not Matt.

Slowly, she made her way down the hall to the dining area by her watch it was time for dinner and she hoped she could grab her food to go. Once there she looked around at everyone, expecting to be bombarded with questions that demanded answers but everyone was quiet. Lance and Hunk both looked at her with their usual smiles, which did weird her out a little that they were in sync but she wasn't being hounded by them for a decision so she took it as a good sign.

“Ah Pidge!” Allura said with a comforting smile, “come sit, I was just about to tell everyone about the old red paladin’s children and the other children that used to live in the castle.”

Pidge raised a brow but sat down anyway. Was her chair suddenly more comfy than it used to be?

“So! As Coran said yesterday, the old red paladin was a mother but she was still able to do her job and do a great job of it as well. In fact…” Allura looked off into the distance a little, “she was one of the best paladins, she protected us to protect them… and the castle used to be full of people of all ages. Small children running around and playing, grand parents helping out wherever they could, it was a good time… I would love to see that again…”

“Wait, she managed to still be a good paladin despite having kids… what about being a mother?” Pidge asked, speaking for the first time today, “was she a good mother despite defending the universe?”

“She was one of the best I knew! Always putting halt to her paladin duties to help them with homework or make sure they were eating,” Coran chimed in, smiling wide as he remembered, “She often did both at the same time, running drills while also doing spelling checks with them.”

Pidge smiled, she liked that idea. Being able to go out and fight any Galra threat and still come home to tuck her child in goodnight. Working on an upgrade for one of the Lions while her kid played around or did homework. It warmed her heart just thinking about that idea. 

As the team ate, Pidge spent most of the evening asking questions wanting to know everything about the families of those who used to live in the castle and how they dealt with fighting the Galra at the same time. Without realising it, that intellectual part of her brain that told her that there was no way she could raise a child and be a paladin slowly faded away, leaving only that little voice that said, ‘You can do it! You can be both!’ ringing loud and clear in her brain.


	5. The Decision

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pidge finally decides whether or not to keep her baby, still unable to tell Shiro the truth.

Pidge paced around the leg of her lion, all dressed in her uniform, about to do some practice drills with the team. A month went by slowly and painfully for Pidge. She struggled over these last few week with deciding on whether or not to keep the child she was carrying, a child that was also Shiro’s. There were several attempts to tell Shiro but every time he either got called away or she chickened out.

“I'm sure I can be a good mother… but I'm a paladin first… but Allura’s stories of the previous red paladin, she was both… but I'm not the red paladin at all…” she murmured to herself, stopping for a moment before continuing, “and then there's Shiro… he doesn't know… I have to tell him… but if I tell him… he might not want it… oh but he said he did… but that could be a front to make me feel better.”

“She's been like this for an hour…” Hunk said, standing at the door to the hanger, glancing at Lance who was leaning against the frame of the door.

“She's a mess,” he said bluntly, frowning as he watched Pidge go around in circles.

“What do we do?”

“Make her stop, it's not like she hasn't already decided she's just trying to talk herself out of it,” Lance sighed and stood up, “Gunderson!”

Pidge stopped and turned quickly on her heels, sure it wasn't her real name but neither was Pidge and it stuck as a slight joke between Lance, Hunk and her.

“McClain…” She said in a slightly panicked tone, slightly dizzy from the pacing and all the mumbling to herself. The two stared at each other until Hunk stepped forward to speak.

“Pidge listen, I know you're struggling right now with the idea of kind of being a single mother because you won't tell Shiro, even though you really should, but Lance and I can help out,” The larger man gave a warm smile to her, which only made her frown.

“I'm not trusting Lance with my child, he tells everyone all my secrets how the hell do I expect him to help with my kid,” Pidge glowered at Lance, who gave off another classic shit eating grin.

“See, she said my child, I told you she had decided.”

Hunk rolled his eyes, “you want to gather everyone to let them know?”

Pidge nodded slowly, slightly adjusting her shoulder pads in anxiousness. Lance kept his large grin as he turned to go bring everyone to the hanger.

“You really think I can do this Hunk?” Pidge asked quietly, looking up towards the towering metal cat above her, “you think I can do both?”

“You spend years secretly looking for your family while being one of the best navigators the Garrison ever saw while also keeping up the persona of being a dude,” he smiled wider, “I think you can do anything!”

Pidge couldn't help but smile at him as Lance returned with the rest of the group. Matt instantly rushed to her side, wanting to make sure she was okay but she quickly brushed him off to address the others.

“So I’ve made my decision…” Everyone stared at her as when she spoke and it made her suddenly feel nervous again.

Oh god Shiro was staring at her. There was no way she could tell him that she was keeping the child that's his that he doesn't even know is his. This was a mistake.

After a few moments of anxious silence Lance sighed and spoke up, “Pidge is gonna be a Mama!”

“Katie… you’re keeping the baby?” Matt asked from her side, watching her face for any slightly change.

She took a deep breath, “yes. I want to keep the-” before Pidge had finished, Matt threw his arms around his little sister and held her close. Slowly she raised her hands to hug him back.

Allura smiled, “congratulations Pidge, I’m so happy for you.”

As soon as Matt let Pidge go, Allura was right over there for the next hug. The mice quickly jumped off of onto Pidge’s shoulder and began to nestle themselves against her.

“Well in that case!” Coran began, adjusting his moustache, “we’ve got a lot of planning to do! We have to get a bed, and a play area sorted, toys and clothes! Not to mention Number 5, you’ll have to adjust your diet and exercise regimen to support healthy growth! Oh! I can even make those mixes drinks again!”

Allura shook her head at Coran’s enthusiasm, keeping her smile on, “one step at a time Coran.”

Pidge looked around at her friend’s smiling faces, even Keith was smiling even though he was the one who initially convincing her to get rid of it. Lance and Hunk were off in a corner together, talking about how they would be the best uncles, Allura had stepped away with Coran and Matt to start making preparations for the new member of their team. Slowly her eyes landed on Shiro. He gave her a smile and a thumbs up but she could see by looking at him, something was off. He looked happy for her but his eyes looked angry, or in pain as he looked at her and slowly walked away.

Was he lying before about telling her to keep it? Was he upset with her for wanting to have this baby? Had Lance told him? Did Shiro know Pidge was carrying his child?

Her thought were distracted by Coran asking her what foods she was craving and if there was any food goo that resembled baby food from back home. She did her best to answer him, grateful for the distraction.

She didn’t notice how Shiro left the room, or the hint of tears in his eyes as he walked away. Lance noticed however, but he decided not to tell Pidge right away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is a little late sorry. I've tried to keep up a schedule of updating this fic on tuesdays and fridays since its such a big fic and I already have a bunch of it written but I was busy at the start of this week so bad news this chapter took a little longer to come out but goos news you wont have to wait long for chapter 6!  
> I've really enjoyed writing this fic and it means a whole lot that other people are enjoying it as much as I am so with 54 kudos and almost 800 hits I just want to say thank you for all the support :)


	6. Vile Concotions and Love Confessions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pidge and the boys try Coran's homemade nutrient smoothies in competitive fun and someone confessed their true feelings.

“Coran are you sure this is safe?” Pidge asked, her nose screwed up at the smell of the drink in front of her.

Coran had demanded that she tell him the moment she stopped suffering from morning sickness and now she understood why. The large cup in front of her was filled with a thick grainy liquid that both smelt and looked like raw sewage. He had listed off the ingredients but Pidge didn't really take any of them into her memory, partly due to how toxic it looked and also due to the fact that Hunk was gagging next to her, with Lance on her other side quickly turning paler and paler.

“Of course! It's made with the finest ingredients and contains all the nutrients you’ll need to support the growth of your child!” Coran smiled, placing cups in front of the boys as well.

Pidge glanced between her sick looking friends, “you don't have to do this you know…”

“Nope!” Lance said boldly picking up the cup, “we promised we would do this with you and be really supportive…”

She turned to face Lance fully as she watched him quickly down a few gulps of the thick green/brown liquid. The second he had put the cup down he was up and out the room, now a nauseous shade of green and covering his mouth so he wouldn't throw up everywhere. Just watching Lance run off to puke was enough to set Hunk off and he quickly followed Lance’s lead.

“Yeah I don't think that's safe…” Pidge looked back at the cup, “but I have to drink it don't I?”

Coran nodded, taking a step back from the table as Pidge picked up the cup and took a deep breath. With perfect timing Keith strutted into the room, rubbing a towel on his sweat soaked face.

“Keith!” Pidge called out to him, a devious smile on her face.

He glanced over at her, giving her a frown, “what?”

“Coran says I have to drink this sewage smoothie to promote the growth of the baby…” she started to explain, seeing his face show a hint of boredom, “I bet that I can drink this faster than you, and keep it down.”

“What?”

“I bet, that I can drink this faster than you and keep it down, unlike the other two,” she repeated, the wicked smile still on her face, “loser has to do whatever the winner says.”

Keith stared at her a minute before putting the towel over his shoulder and going to sit down at the table. Pidge handed him Hunk’s untouched cup. They both took a deep breath as they looked at the cups, counting down with each other and starting the race. For the most Keith was in the lead but he stopped halfway through to turn and gag whereas Pidge kept going, giving her the chance to get in the lead and ultimately win.

She put the cup down and threw her arms in the air, “yes!”

Keith put his cup down shortly after, taking a few deep breaths and using his towel to wipe his face, “well done Pidge, I’ve been bested…” he smiled at her.

“I don't know what the boys were complaining about it, it's not that bad…” she picked up her cup again, running her finger round the side of the cup to get the excess off, “kind of tastes like a weird mix of strawberries and steak pie…”

Keith raised a brow, “it tastes like vomit. But any way, what's my punishment, I lost.”

Pidge thought for a moment, “you have to stop playing this game with Lance. Admit you two are dating and keep it going this time, this on off thing is really messing with him and you know it.”

Keith looked down at the cup, “yeah… I just don't want to live in his pockets.”

“You don't have to. Just stop wanting to be with him then suddenly being a dick and suddenly backing off with no warning,” Pidge stood up and stretched, her small baby bump showing underneath her tight tank top, “just tell him how you feel so I don't have to deal with him crying on my shoulder every time, I’ve got enough emotional stuff going on myself.”

“You’re right…” Keith sighed, “hey Pidge?”

“Yeah?” She turned to look at him.

“You’re gonna be a good mum… and will still be a really good paladin…” he spoke quietly, not really looking at her. 

Pidge smiled at him, “thanks, that means a lot.”

\---

Lance brushed his teeth for the fourth time that day, still trying to wash the taste of the drink out of his mouth. He had a newfound respect for Pidge, after hearing she drank the whole thing without even breaking a sweat. He spat into the sink and checked his teeth in the mirror, still pearly white as they should be, thank god the brown sludge he drank didn't leave him with any staining.

There was a light knock on his bedroom door and he turned towards it.

“Yeah?”

The door slid open to reveal a soft blushing Keith, nervously fidgeting with the Velcro on his gloves.

“Lance we need to talk,” he said quietly, starting to look up at him.

A million terrible thoughts rushed through Lance’s mind. He slowly sat on the bed, gesturing for Keith to join him, both now looking super nervous.

“Lance I-” Keith started but was quickly cut off by Lance.

“Please don't break up with me! I know we aren't officially dating but I like this,” he started, his voice slightly panicked and breaking in places, “I know I moan to Pidge and Hunk all the time about how terrible it feels to have you want me one second and not want me the next but I really like what we have and the truth is Keith I think I love you…”

Lance spoke with such a ramble and fast pace it took Keith a second to process everything he said. Keith began to lift his hand causing Lance to instinctively flinch, expecting Keith to hit him or run away or say something mean. Instead, Keith pulled him closer and kissed him.

It was soft, gentle, very different from any previous kiss they had shared. Lance closed his eyes, placing his hands on Keith’s waist as Keith’s arms wrapped around Lance’s neck.

Carefully Keith pulled away to speak, “I love you too. I want to admit it to everyone.”

Lance beamed and kissed Keith again, leaning deeper and deeper into it and eventually pushing Keith back into the bed.

“You have no idea how happy this makes me!” Lance said, still smiling wide as he nuzzled Keith’s neck affectionately.

Keith laughed at the nuzzling which caused Lance to laugh as well. The two laughed for a good while, just simply enjoying each others company in this special little moment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know the title for this chapter is cruel but I couldn't help it! Now Keith and Lance are on the road to having there own happy family.   
> Hope you all enjoy this chapter as well <3


	7. A Little Bit of Girl Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Allura helps Pidge in finding new clothes to cover her exposed baby bump while also looking for any baby clothes that might be around.

Clothes were scattered all over the room as Allura sorted through every box she could find. She tried to keep anything matching together but with everything badly mixed up in the box in the first place it was hard. The mice ran around, gathering up anything she missed and dragged it to the matching item.

“Okay, even I think this is a mess…” Pidge said as she carefully stepped into the room.

Allura rolled her eyes and held up a long dress that she found, “at least I will clean it up.”

Pidge laughed, lightly touching her now rather large baby bump. She was now a only couple months away from her due date and her clothes were all far too tight, all showing off her stomach in the worst way. Allura had started looking through old boxes of clothes to try and find something that would fit her, and was also secretly looking for any of her old baby clothes.

Pidge walked over and took the dress from Allura, “I want trousers and loose tops, I'm not looking for anything else.”

“Way to ruin my fun,” Said Allura, giving a playful pout towards Pidge, “at least try it on. Who knows you might end up looking super cute in it.”

The smaller girl gave a small sigh, “fine, just give me some other stuff to try on.”

Allura smiled and handed Pidge a few small pile of clothes to try on and they had a little mini fashion show. A few items didn't fit well on her due to her new shape and others fit perfectly, such as the dress Allura suggested at the beginning.

The soft sheer fabric still showed off the bump but it covered Pidge with the modesty she missed a little. Allura tied the bow ribbon behind Pidge's back.

“See, super cute,” she smiled, “Shiro would be impressed if he saw you in this.~”

Pidge turned to look at her, “why would Shiro be impressed? It's a dress…”

“Pidge… It’s no secret to any of us how he feels about you, to be honest,” Allura crossed her arms over her chest, “he would probably like you more if he knew…”

“Knew what?” Pidge’s tone turned defensive as she took a small step back.

“Pidge… I know.”

“Know what? There is nothing to know,” Pidge frowned, her voice slightly panicked.

“Shiro is the father right? Practically everyone but Shiro knows,” Allura looked Pidge up and down, ready to grab her if she ran.

“How did you find out?” Pidge looked down for a small minute before looking up again, “did Lance tell you?! I'm going to kill him.”

“No, no. I crossed the DNA just like you did, Lance didn't say anything.”

Pidge gave a defeated sigh, “I've tried so many times to tell him, but I'm worried he would hate me for wanting to keep it and if he knew…” she looked down, “you should have seen the way he looked at me when I said I was going to be a mother.”

Allura frowned and pulled Pidge into a hug, “I’m sure it's not the case, we are all supporting you through this.”

Pidge hugged her back, sniffling slightly, “he hates me, for wanting to have this child and if he found out it was his, if he hasn't figured it out already, he would hate me even more. I don't even know if I'm able to do this.”

The princess stayed quiet, listening to Pidge let everything out.

“Like what if I end up hating my kid? What if they hate me? What if I'm terrible at this and have to give up being a paladin to take care of them?” Her words became more of a ramble the more upset she got, “what if I’m letting the whole team down by doing this?”

“Pidge. Calm down. You are going to do great, every single one of us have so much faith in you. Shiro doesn't have to know if you don't want him to and!” Allura pulled away from the hug to look Pidge in the eyes, “I don't think you are capable of hating this child, you have done everything to ensure they develop properly and are health.”

Pidge gave a few soft nods, taking off her glasses to dry her wet eyes.

“Now, why don't we look at some baby clothes I found. Most of them are mine but I'm sure that they would eventually fit your child no matter what gender they turn out,” Allura took one of Pidge’s hands and lead her over to the pile of baby clothes she was organising.

Pidge put on her glasses again and began to look at the clothes, starting to smile at all the cute little pieces of fabric.

“Thank you Allura… this means a lot,” she said, very thankful for Allura’s kind words of encouragement.

“You don't have to thank me,” Allura smiled and gave Pidge a small nudge, “you just have to let me take care of the little one too.”

“Of course, it would be impossible without any of you.”

Allura smiled happily at pidge and helped her try on a new dress, the mice danced small circles round her feet, pulling bits of ribbon about.

Allura hummed as she smoothed out pidges dress, she remembered what it was like to hear the sounds of kids running round the hallways of the now empty castle and she looked forward to the day the sounds of laughter and pattering feet would return.

Pidge held up one of the smaller outfits and wondered what it would look like on her child, and what her child might look like. She was glad that Allura was there and not Lance, as tears came unbidden to her eyes. She was so lucky to have so many supportive people on her side. Even if she believed the one most important to her was disappointed in her she still had the others.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Allura the number 1 comforter! 
> 
> I got a few comments on the last chapter which honestly made me feel really giddy, I just love that there are people looking forward to every chapter that comes out and I hope it lives up to their expectations :)


	8. Suspicions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Life goes on as normal for the Voltron crew but Shiro starts to grow suspicious when everyone's whisperings are hushed when ever he's near and when Pidge starts to avoid him when he asks the basic question "Why do you have my shirt?".

Shiro was working out in his room, sweat dripping from his face as he pushed himself up. He slowly allowed himself to go back into the ground before getting himself up. The buff man picked up a nearby towel to wipe his face of the sweat, hearing a soft knock on his door. 

He opened the door, seeing a heavily pregnant Pidge holding a full laundry basket.

“I'm doing a light load, you got anything I can use?” Said Pidge, adjusting her hold on the basket to compensate her now very large baby bump.

“First of all, yes, second of all, you shouldn't be carrying such a heavy basket. You’re seven months pregnant you should be resting,” Shiro frowned, concerned for her, as he took the basket from her and put it in his bed.

“I'm fully capable of doing the laundry Shiro,” she put a hand on her hip as she watched him collect some dirty clothes and add them to the pile.

“I can still carry this for you at least,” he picked up the basket and gestured for her to lead the way.

Pidge rolled her eyes and began to walk down the hall, Shiro close behind her. She hadn't spent much time alone with Shiro these last few months, purposely avoiding him to avoid the awkward sinking feeling she had deep in the pit of her stomach when they were alone. Instinctively she touched her bump.

“Tiny Holt kicking?” Said Shiro, breaking the pin-dropping silence.

“Not at the moment… I'm convinced they sleep during the day and only beat me up at night,” she smiled up at him.

Shiro beamed back, “you must be getting excited, less than two months now right?”

“One months and thirteen days, at least until the date the medical pod gave me,” she nodded, holding the door to the laundry room open for him.

Shiro placed the basket down and opened up the washer, “did you think of any names?”

“I only have a boys name… Sam, after my dad.”

“That's sweet, I'm sure Sam will be happy to hear it.”

She shrugged, “he doesn't even know I'm pregnant… he's going to die when he finds out.”

Shiro laughed lightly, “I'm sure he will be delighted to know he’s a grandfather.”

He began to put the clothes into the dryer, trying not to look at her too much. She looked happy with her bump, gently stroking it as she spoke. Shiro did his best to be happy for her and supportive but he couldn't erase the sadness he felt. 

“Ow,” Pidge said suddenly placing a hand on her bump, “don't be so rough kid…”

Shiro looked over, “kicking?” He asked, a small spark of excitement lighting in his eyes.

“Yeah…” Pidge looked down at her bump for a moment in thought before looking back up, “would you like to feel it?”

He hesitantly placed a hand on her stomach, watching her face for any sign that he's overstepping. Suddenly she sighed and took hold of his hand, moving it to a better location to feel the tiny kicks of the unborn child. His face lit up almost instantly as he felt a few kicks one right after the other.

“Seems like he’ll be a fighter yet,” Shiro joked, slowly moving his hand away.

“Yup, he's gonna be kicking bad guy butt the second he's out,” she smiled, lightly stroking the little bump.

Shiro turned back to the washing he and as he picked up a shirt from her pile he frowned, this shirt looked familiar. He could have sworn he lost a shirt just like this. Carefully he looked at the label in the collar, ‘Takashi Shirogane.’

“Hey Pidge… this is my shirt, the one I lost the last time we were on Earth. Why is it in your laundry?” He looked over at her, frowning still.

“Oh!” She went wide eyed as he spoke, “that's your shirt? Weird! I just found it in a pile in my room… well since you have the laundry handled, I shall go and, see what Hunk is doing! Okay bye!”

Shiro raised a brow at her as she ran off to find Hunk, “yeah… weird…”

\----

Later, Shiro was walking through the castle towards where he heard some commotion. When he entered the room he saw Lance and Hunk whispering to one another about something while Keith was off a small distance away, inspecting his bayard. He slowly went forward, listening in.

“I mean she's gonna give birth in the next few months she has to tell him,” Hunk said, very hushed to Lance.

“I know but it is her choice… despite the fact I told you she should be the one to tell him,” Responded Lance, folding his arms.

“Tell who what?” Shiro said as he reached the pair.

“Nothing!” Lance said, panic in his voice, as he quickly spinning to face Shiro.

Shiro raised a brow at them, glancing at Hunk. A small bead of sweat dropped down the side of Hunk’s face, staring at Shiro and shaking slightly under the pressure.

“Hunk…” 

“I can't take it anymore!” Hunk shouted, taking a deep breath ready to spill all the secrets he knew.

Out of nowhere Keith flew in and drop kicked Hunk in the side, screaming something along the lines of ‘Combine’, and Hunk dropped to the floor in pain. Keith quickly got up and dusted himself of.

“Wow Hunk! Great training, that is definitely what I call bonding. Let's get you to the medical pods to look at that side of yours,” Keith looked up, “Hey Shiro! Didn't see you there. We’re gonna take Hunk away now… bye.”

Keith and Lance both quickly hauled Hunk up and began to walk with him out of the room. Shiro stared at them as they left, completely confused on what that was even about. 

Why was everyone suddenly acting so weird around him and what were the guys talking about before? Hell, why did Pidge have his missing shirt? Something was going on, and Shiro was somehow in the center of it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I've been busy which is why this chapter took so long to come out I'm sorry to those who've been waiting! 
> 
> This is personally my favourite chapter because of Keith and Hunk's combine moment, had me giggling for days but it's all part of the 'Let Pidge be the one to tell him' plan the others have going on so it is useful. Also Shiro feeling the baby bump was a last minute addition that needed to exist, it just needed to.
> 
> As always hope you all enjoy this chapter :)


	9. Labour Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pidge's due date is right around the corner and the team have set up a little surprise for her, but will everything go according to plan?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING!
> 
> There is mention of child birth and blood in this chapter

“Lance where are you taking me?” Pidge asked as she was guided through the castle.

Lance had blindfolded her and was holding her hand, dragging her to their destination, too excited to remember her shorter legs and pregnant waddle which made her much slower than him.

“Come on! Pick up the speed!”

“Lance!” She moaned coming to a dead stop and taking her hand away from his, “I am nine months along, I need a breather.”

Pidge placed her hands on the small of her back and took a few heavy breaths as Lance tapped his foot impatiently.

“But everyone is waiting!” He groaned.

“Everyone isn't carrying another person,” she snipped, taking off her blindfold.

“Stop! You’ll ruin the surprise!”

She shot him a quick glare before putting her glasses back on.

“Fine, fine…” Lance gave her a soft pout before continuing down the hall, making a more conscious effort to make sure he was walking at the same pace as her.

“So what is this surprise?”

“Can't say, not until we get there.”

Pidge rolled her eyes and followed Lance down the white halls of the castle.

Eventually they stopped at one room that Pidge had never been to before, in fact this entire hall had been blocked off by Coran and Allura for a few weeks now and when the door opened she could see why. The room had been converted into a nursery with bright pastel yellow walls and a small metal crib that was clearly crafted by Hunk. Pidge took a few small steps into the room to get a better look at, what must have been, hundreds of toys from all over the galaxy and a small mobile, made up of the different lions, hung above the crib. She turned slowly to look at everyone who now stood in the hallway outside the door, all smiling and waiting for her reaction.

“Oh guys,” she looked at them, shock across her face, “why did you have to go with yellow?”

“What?” Allura raised a thin brow.

“Yellow, it's such a shit colour, no offence Hunk,” Pidge said as she looked at the painted yellow rocking chair in the corner of the room.

“See Lance, told you she would hate the yellow,” Hunk murmured, nudging his best friend lightly.

“What?! But Yellow is such a good gender neutral colour!” The tall man groaned, throwing his arms up in confusion.

“But thank you, this means a whole lot,” Pidge smiled as she spun the mobile softly with a finger.

“Oh!” Coran quickly pushed past everyone to be at Pidge's side, “the cradle, it has wheels! So you can have fun times pushing the little one down the hall!”

“It's so that if you want to, we can move the crib to your room,” Allura giggled, also stepping into the room.

Shiro opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off as an alarm sounded across the castle and a bright red light blinked harshly in the hall. Allura stepped to a panel in the side of the room and the blue hologram flickered on.

“It's the Galra, they're attacking. To your lions Paladins!” She commanded quickly as everyone scattered towards their respective hangers.

As Pidge took a step out of the room Shiro blocked her path.

“No you’re staying here,” he ordered, pointing into the room.

“What? No I'm not, you need the green lion to form Vaoltron,” the smaller woman took a step to her left, to try and step around him but Shiro stubbornly blocked her path.

“No it's too dangerous, for you and the baby,” his thick brows furrowed as he frowned, his scar wrinkling slightly.

“Are you seriously going to fight a pregnant woman on this?!” She snapped before pushing her way past him and breaking into as fast of a run as her heavy body would allow.

Shiro gave a defeated groan as he followed her down the hall, knowing there was no sense in fighting her.

“Matt just let her go,” Shiro said as he watched his friend step in front of his sister.

“No, she's not going, she could get hurt or worse and with the baby coming any day now-” Matt began to babble before Pidge carefully pushed him aside.

“I'm not abandoning my team,” said Pidge, her voice serious and slightly rough. 

Both boys could see on her face that she was worried as well, about the safety of her baby, about how all of this would affect her and the lion in the heat of battle. She had spent the last few months worrying about all this, all her doubts from the early days creeping back in completely unwanted. Skipping training, not seeing any galra ships, cooped up with the Green Lion or hiding in her room had taken its toll and now everything was full blown panic in her mind.

She climbed into the large metal cat, forever thankful that the paladin suits could mold to the shape of their owner rather easily. The joints hissed softly as the lion began to wake itself up and get ready for action. Pidge took a deep breath, taking hold of the control sticks with a small amount of hesitation.

The moment she heard Shiro give the command to go, all worries left her head and she became laser focused on what was the task in front of her. The dark purple ships of the Galra. Shooting at them. Avoid the lasers

The boys were quick to dodge several lasers, silently working together to protect the green lion and Pidge, not even giving her a chance to get to the front lines. Pidge gave a disapproving grunt as they forced her closer and closer to the castle. She could hear the worried voice of Allura, Coran and Matt in her ear as she turned the cloaking of the green lion on and moved past the boys.

“Katie what are you doing?!” Matt screeched through the coms at her.

“I'm no use to anyone if I am hiding behind everyone! Let me fight!” She snapped back at them and they all went quiet for a moment, “we have to form Voltron in order to get the opportunity to get away! And I'm sorry to inform you guys that you need Green and her pregnant paladin to do that!”

“Pidge is right, we’re not in the right state to fight them full on without her,” Shiro admitted, sounding completely defeated, “Form Voltron!”

Suddenly they all flew closer to each other, joints retracting and slotting into hidden compartments. The sliding of the metal comforted Pidge slightly as each lion took its place in the giant mechanism. Green didn't finish transforming before the worst thing imaginable happened. There was a sudden rush of fluid that wet the groin area of her suit and an intense pulse of pain shot through her, distracting her from the task and forcing a pained scream from deep in her chest.

“Pidge?!” Hunk shouted as the rest of the robot fell apart and they each went into their separate lion forms.

“I’m fine!” She responded when the pain passed. Pidge glanced down at her soaked suit and seat, “oh fuck me sideways…”

“Pidge what's happening?” The commanding voice of Shiro came into her ears as she looked back up at the battle field, and saw she was being shoved out of the way of a laser by the hulking yellow body of Hunk’s lion.

“I'm fine, just a little bit of pain and I may have… lost control of my bladder but I’m fine…” she felt her ears burn telling them that, retreating behind the boys and moving closer to the castle.

“Wait, pain, loss of bladder control?” Lance frowned hearing this, “Like what kind of pain?! Pidge!”

“Cool it Lance it was nothing! I’m fi-” she was cut off by another pulse of pain and an involuntary scream.

“It's not fine! Pidge is in labour guys we have to bounce now!” Lance snapped, instantly moving his lion directly in front of hers to protect her.

“Labour? Guys this can't be good, we’re under some seriously heavy fire…” Rumbled Hunk, shooting towards the smaller Galra fighters that began to swarm them.

“Hunk’s right, unless we can get them to stop firing we have no hope of getting away!” Allura said as the castle swung round to shoot it's artillery towards the bigger ship.

“Well what do we do? We can't exactly call them up and ask them to stop,” Keith snapped, moving to protect Pidge as well.

Pidge let out another pained scream as her lion began to move erratically, she was losing control.

“Allura open the coms to the ship, talking to them is our only hope…” Lance said, doing his best to move Pidge out of the line of fire.

“Lance are you crazy that won't work!” Keith snapped.

“It's our only option….” Allura said quietly, “Coran, open communications.”

After a short while the booming voice of the General in charge of the battleship in front of them. They heard small mumbles of a cease fire and something along the lines of ‘I want to hear their surrender’ before the General properly spoke.

“Voltron! What a pleasure, you must be calling to inform us of your surrender! Good,” they could feel the sharp grin of their enemy from his voice.

“Shut it bad guy,” Lance snapped, taking a very demanding tone.

“Bad guy? I will have you know I am General Hatcha and I was sent by our leader Zarcon to-” Hatcha was cut off by Pidge, giving another whale in pain, “oh wow they are in worse shape than we thought…” the general muttered to someone on the other side of the coms.

“I said shut it! Listen our green paladin is in labour so it would be really cool if you stopped shooting at us for like 5 minutes so we can get away,” Lance snapped again, looking through his screens at the green lion.

There was a small murmur from General Hatcha’s side of the communications before he responded, “begging for mercy will do you no good here Paladins, whatever this ‘labour’ is will never stop our attack on you!”

“For the love of… She's giving birth!” Keith shouted as the red lion’s jaw blade sliced through an enemy ship.

“I'm fine! I can keep fighting!” Pidge shouted in response before giving out yet another pained scream.

There was more murmuring. They could distinctly hear a sentence from the General in his hushed voice, “having kits on the battlefield, and claiming they’re fine? Humans are actually kinda scary oh dear…”

Lance and Keith used their lions to push Pidge towards the castle more while Hunk and Shiro kept the smaller fighter ships off.

“No! We will not relent, no matter what! You will sur- Are… are they back in the castle?!” 

“Shiro, Hunk, we’re in the castle come on!” Keith said, helping Pidge land her lion safely in the hanger.

“Creating a wormhole now!” Coran called as Hunk and Shiro began their retreat.

“No. No!” was the last thing they heard Hatcha scream as he watched the blue worm hole appear and the castle disappear within it and the coms were cut off.

\--  
Shiro forced the hatch of the green lion’s cockpit open. He carefully pulled Pidge from her seat, cradling her in his arms as she let out another pained shriek.

Matt burst into the hanger and gestured for them to follow before running back into the halls. Shiro got down carefully, not letting go of Pidge, before following. They all ran at full speed toward the room Allura had set up for when the day came. He placed Pidge on the bed carefully and took hold of her hand.

Allura quickly stepped into the room and motioned for someone to take Pidge's helmet off of her before working on getting her paladin gear off. Coran was not long behind her, with blankets and supplies.

“It's okay Pidge, it's gonna be okay, just breath…” Shiro said comfortingly to his friend, giving her hand a tight squeeze.

“Shiro I…” Pidge began to speak before her eyes rolled back into her head and she passed out.

“Katie!” Matt cried out, taking hold of her other hand.

“Allura what's happening?” Shiro looked over at Allura to see her shaking, her hands covered in blood.

Her pale blue eyes as she looked between her hands and the boys. There was a sudden clatter of a helmet as Lance threw his to the floor. He walked over taking off his gloves and taking off as much of the armour as he could. Lance carefully moved Allura out of the way to have a look at what was going on.

“Everyone but Allura out! Keith give me your crazy Galra knife!” Lance’s voice boomed, commanding everyone and they quickly listened.

Keith gave Lance his knife and helped usher everyone out.

“What's going on?!” Matt said as he looked back at them, catching a glance of Lance lifting up the knife, pouring some kind of sanitising gel over it and looking at Pidge's rounded stomach before the doors to the room closed, “What is he doing to my sister?!”

“Matt calm down…” Keith said, gently touching the panicked man’s shoulder.

“Calm down?! My baby sister is in labour and was bleeding really heavily and he has a knife to her! How can I calm down?!”

“Matt’s right what if something bad happens? What if we lose both of them?” Hunk chimed in, a slightly calmer tone than Matt’s but still panicked.

“Guys calm down, with the way Lance took charge just now he must know what he’s doing… I hope,” Shiro looked at the door with a frown, only negative outcomes coming into his mind as he waited with the others, only hearing the sounds of Lance barking orders at Allura and Pidge’s pained screams for help.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *gasp* the drama!
> 
> I just wanna point out that the OC General Hatcha is probably my favourite OC, he just wants to catch Voltron and he's not very good at it...
> 
> As always enjoy!


	10. Samual Matthew Holt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone is full of excitement as they welcome the new member of their team into the world but will this child's likeness to it's father finally allow Shiro to figure out the truth that's been there all along?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING!
> 
> There is mention of blood in this chapter.

They spent hours standing outside the room waiting, unable to do anything but pace around. Hunk was the only one able to tear himself away from the door, coming back with batches of what looked like cookies.

Lance was the first to come out, his brow covered in sweat and his paladin uniform covered in blood. Matt forced his way past Lance into the room, not even taking a second to listen to what Lance had to say.

“It's a boy!” Lance smiled, holding his arms out rather dramatically at the announcement. 

“How's Pidge?” Shiro asked, taking a step towards Lance.

Lance slowly lowered his arms, “we think that there was a small tear in the lining of her uterus, which is why I performed a C-Section… it's not pretty but we did what we could… Allura says it too risky to move her into a medical pod. She's resting, you guys can go see her if you want to…”

They all looked at one another, not sure who should be the first to go in. Coran made the first move, briskly walking into the room with both Hunk and Shiro behind him. Keith looked Lance up and down, taking a step towards him.

“How did you know what to do? It seems very specific for you…” he asked, slightly raising his brow.

“I'm the second oldest and my mum hates hospitals, by time my baby sister came around I’d seen three home births,” the taller man shrugged, “Pidge needed help… I did what I had to.”

“Wait,” Matt said as he stepped up to Lance, “you have only seen C-sections… you didn't actually know what you were doing?”

Lance took a small step back, sensing the rage boiling up in the small man in front of him, “I mean she needed help I…”

Matt rushed forward and grabbed hold of the collar of Lance’s shirt, jerking him down so they were eye to eye. His jaw was set and Lance could see in his eyes that Matt had every intention to hit him.

“You, completely inexperienced, sliced up my sister, my baby sister!” His grip tightened as he pulled Lance closer.

“Matt calm down please… Pidge needed it done and she’ll be fine…” Lance pleaded, never knowing fear like this before.

“Matt, let Lance go! She's fine,” Keith placed his hand over Matt’s, wanting to pry his fingers off his boyfriend’s shirt.

Matt shoved Keith away with his free hand, causing him to almost fall over, before bringing it back, “you could have killed her!”

“Matthew!” Allura called, a bundle of cloth in her arms, “Lance saved Pidge’s life, let him go.”

They could hear Matt give a growl as he felt Shiro place a hand on his shoulder and he shoved Lance backwards, making him fall back over. He stood up as tall as he possibly could.

“Go near her again and I swear I won't let you off next time,” he growled down at Lance before heading back into the room.

Shiro gave a small sight before helping Lance up, trying not to get any blood on himself.

“Matt’s right Lance, you shouldn't have done that if you didn't know what you were doing it was reckless,” Lance flinched at Shiro’s disappointed Dad voice.

“Lay off him Shiro. She's alive and that's all that matters,” Keith glared as Shiro turned back to head into the room.

Keith placed a hand on Lance’s arm, “are you okay?”

“I'm just tired but once I shower I’ll be good.”

“Okay…”

“Oh if Pidge wakes up tell her she's not allowed to name him until I get there!” Lance smiled before heading off down the hall.

Keith watched him walk away before entering the room. He could see Pidge curled up in a deep sleep while everyone crowded around Allura. Slowly, he went over to the bed and looked his friend over, trying his best to hide his own worry. She was paler than normal and she was caked in sweat from all of the stress her body went through.

“Keith,” Hunk called over to him, “come meet baby Pidge.”

Shiro stepped away from the small circle and Keith quickly took his place and oh boy. The small boy that Allura cradled in her slender arms was almost a complete spitting image of Shiro, only slightly rounder in the face. He didn't have Shiro’s signature white tuft of hair and had much rounder and brown eyes but everything else was Shiro, any doubt any of them had that he was Shiro’s was completely gone by just looking at him.

“He’s kinda cute,” Keith commented with a small smile.

“Kind of? Why he’s cuter than a Klanmüirl!” Coran exclaimed, scooping the small bundle from the princess.

“Careful!” Matt took a step forward to protect his nephew.

“He’s perfectly safe, Matt,” Allura said with a small smile, “I’ll check on Pidge.”

Allura walked over towards where Pidge was, giving a small smile at Shiro, “don't you want to see the baby?”

“I shouldn’t have let her go…” he said quietly, gently stroking Pidge’s pale hand as he held it.

“It's not your fault Shiro, she insisted on going… we had no idea this would happen,” Allura lightly touched Shiro’s shoulder.

“She would have been okay if I stopped-”

“She is okay, they both are. Pidge has a beautiful baby boy to wake up to, we should be celebrating not worrying.”

Shiro looked over to Allura and sighed, “you’re right… He is a rather handsome little guy…”

“Wonder where he gets it from,” Allura smiled, watching Shiro’s face for any hint of realisation, though there was nothing.

Just as Shiro was about to question what Allura meant he felt something squeeze his hand. Both him and Allura looked down just in time to see Pidge open her eyes.

“Pidge,” Allura smiled, moving round to the other side of her.

“What happened?” The smaller woman asked, moving her hand away from Shiro’s and trying to sit herself up with a small whimper of pain.

“Careful, you need rest… you’ve been through a lot,” Shiro said, placing his hand behind her back to help.

“Katie!” Called Matt, quickly snatching his nephew from Coran’s arms and making his way over towards his sister.

“Is that?” Pidge asked, squinting her eyes slightly.

Allura nodded, “yes.”

Pidge held her arms out towards Matt as he approached, trying not to look too desperate to hold the little bundle. He gently placed the baby within her arms, smiling widely the whole time. She smiled down at the little face surrounded in blanket, her heart sinking a little at how much he looked like his father.

“Hey there,” she cooed softly, using her free hand to move some material from his face, “aren't you just perfect?”

Matt sat on the edge of the bed, watching the pair with the biggest smile imaginable, “he's amazing Katie.”

“What are you going to call him?” Hunk said, moving to her side.

Pidge didn't even waste a heartbeat thinking, she knew exactly what to call him, “Samuel, Sam for short.”

“Like dad,” Matt said softly, placing a hand on his sister's arm.

“Well if I want him to grow up to be a smart man, I should name him after the smartest man I know,” she smiled at Matt, “well smartest men. Samuel Matthew Holt, it's a fitting name.”

He sniffled, taking off his glasses to rub his eyes as they began to tear up, “you’re naming him after me too?”

“Pidge, since you're awake, Coran and I shall move you to the medical pods now so you can heal faster,” Allura said, gesturing for Matt to take Sam.

Matt quickly put his glasses back on and took the baby, “don't worry sis, I’ll take him to the nursery and get him settled.”

“It's okay Sammy, I’ll get those awful yellow walls painted as soon as possible, maybe to a galaxy scape or something,” Pidge smiled as Coran and Allura began to move the bed out of the room.

As the doors closed Lance walked in through a side door, his hair still wet from his shower and a wide smile on his face.

“Is Pidge awake?” He said as he walked to the small crowd.

“Yup! Meet Samuel Matthew Holt, my nephew!” Matt announced, looking down at the bundle.

Lance’s face dropped, “what? She named him without me?! Keith I told you not to let her!”

“Sorry, but it is just a name…” Keith shrugged, looking over st Lance.

“Just a name? Babe you hurt me, this is the name he’s going to be called for the rest of his life, and I missed her picking it!”

“She didn't have to pick, I have a feeling she knew what it would be for a while,” Shiro said looking over Matt’s shoulder, studying every part of the baby's face, not letting his suspicion show, “and it's a very special name…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ugh Matt you need to chill! Lance did the best he could!
> 
> Here comes one of the official main Oc's of this fic Sam, a fun loving adventurer who is like his father in every single way. I actually really like Sam and the stuff I have planned for him so I hope everyone likes him too!  
> The Matt Vs. Lance thing was actually a very last minute addition to this chapter because someone pointed out in the last chapter that Lance must of studied hard to be able to do it so I thought I would add that he didn't 100% know what he was doing...
> 
> As always enjoy the chapter guys and let me know what you think.


	11. A Good Thing Can Bring Back Pain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Matt tries to feel happy for his sister and her new child but painful memories of their time apart keep resurfacing.

Even the soft gurgling of his newborn nephew could not make Matt smile as he gently rocked the small bundle of baby. His mind was too busy racing with all sorts of worries to focus on how adorable the little boy in his arms was. Pidge had almost died. His baby sister had gotten into a situation that almost killed her. If only he had been here from the start, if he hadn't been captured none of this would have happened.

Just thinking about the Galra and his time with them made his stomach turn, he could feel the large brand from the gladiator battles burning a hole through his shirt, and the large scar the rebels carved across it , as a mark of freedom. It still stung to think about. He was free from them, but his freedom hadn't been enough to protect his sister. His thoughts were moving so fast around his head he barely noticed the tall slender figure of Allura sitting next to him, and cooing softly at Sam.

“He has Pidge’s eyes, doesn't he?” She said softly, leaning over to lightly touch the baby's tiny nose. Sam scrunched his little nose up as Allura’s finger moved away.

“Hm? Oh yeah… big brown doe eyes…” he said softly. 

“Doe?” She raised a slender brow and for the first time Matt cracked a small smile at her cluelessness.

“A doe is the name for the female version of an Earth animal called a deer. They usually have big brown eyes and are really cute,” he explained, looking over at her, “so when someone has big brown eyes we say they have Doe eyes.”

“Oh I see!” She smiled, “I hope that next time we go to Earth I can see one.”

Matt kept his smiled until he looked back at Sam, frowning more when he looked into the eyes of the child.

“Is there something on your mind?” Allura asked, her calming tone soothing his darker thoughts slightly.

“It's nothing… It’s just… Katie almost died today… I can't help thinking that I should have been able to do something to prevent it.”

“Matthew… this isn't your fault. I had no idea this would happen and Lance did everything he could, she’ll be okay after a few dobashes in the medical pod,” she kept her voice calm, hiding her own worry from him the best she could.

“No I mean… If I hadn't been captured, if I had gotten away sooner… I could have done more to protect her…”

Allura frowned and lightly touched his shoulder, “Matt… You cannot change what has happened in the past, I know that if I could go back, I would change so much. I wouldn't have let Pidge get in that Lion today, I would have done more to keep her safe.. but we can't change it,” she squeezed his shoulder softly, “But for now, Pidge is going to be okay. Her child is going to be okay… We are all going to be okay.”

He gave a small sigh and looked at her, tears welling up in his eyes, “sorry could you take him?”

She nodded and carefully took the bundle from his shaking arms, “Matt…”

“I'm fine, I… just want to be alone…”

Matt got up and headed out of the room, forcing himself to hold back his tears the best he could and keep any dark thoughts at bay.

\---

The warm water rushed over his skin like a warm blanket, warming his scars as he trailed his calloused fingers over them. Each scar gave Matt a sour taste in his mouth as the memory of how it happened rushed forward to the front of his mind. Most of them were from his time with the rebels as they trained him to fight on his own and pull his own weight after they had saved him but two of the larger ones were from his time with the Galra.   
One was because of Shiro, attacking him so he didn't have to fight in the gladiator battles but leaving him with a slightly weakened leg and a deep and twisted scar across his left calf, and the other he could still feel burning even now.

Just before they were sentenced to fight for the amusement of those monsters, they were each branded with the Galra mark, somewhere on their body. Shiro was lucky, his brand was on the arm he had lost, but Matt’s sat on his shoulder blade just within reach of his fingers, constantly reminding him he was alone for the longest time. He could barely feel the large cross scar that stretched over the brand, the puckered edges of the brand stood out among everything else.

He gave a small sigh and turned off the water, standing in the cold air for a moment, before heading out of the shower block towards the changing room where he left his clothes and a towel. Matt picked up the towel and was about to wrap it around his waist when he heard a scream followed by ‘i’m sorry’ over and over again. He turned on his heel without thinking and quickly covered himself when he saw Allura standing there, covering her eyes the best she could.

“Allura?!”

“I'm sorry! I’m so sorry! I just came to let you know that Lance and Hunk have Sam, I’m so so sorry!” She yelled before quickly running off down the halls, her eyes covered and a huge red blush over her face.

Matt’s face has also turned a deep red as he looked down towards his feet, not sure what to do now. All he could do was quickly dry off and get dressed before heading off in a different direction from where Allura went to find Lance and Hunk to get Sam back.

He had to admit, this was probably the closest he had gotten to a girl seeing him naked he had ever gotten, even if it was super unexpected and totally not how he planned it to happen. The prettiest girl in the universe had just seen him naked, he was ready to curl up in a corner and die right there and then.   
He was so embarrassed that he didn't notice all the dark thoughts had melted away for the time being. Only to have them replaced with thoughts of Allura, and what she might think of him now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poor Matt, why do I love to hurt him in the fics I write?   
> This is the first of the handful of Mallura chapters and I just love it.
> 
> As always enjoy guys!


	12. Work Out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pidge goes to Keith for some advice on a work out but it turns out he's not the best teacher.

“Keith! Just the man I’ve been looking for,” Pidge said as she walked into the training room, unusually chipper.

It had been a month since Sam had been brought into the universe, and the healing process from then had taken a lot longer than she had hoped but today was the day she had gotten the okay to start moving around more freely.

Keith looked up at her from his planking position and raised a brow at her outfit. He had no idea Pidge owned gym gear.

“Shouldn't you be resting?” He asked, pushing himself up more so he could stand up.

“I got the all clear from Allura today, so I gave Sam to his Uncle Hunk and I came to ask you if you would run through some kind of exercise drill with me?” She clasped her hands together and smiled widely at him.

“No. You may have gotten the all clear, but Matt and Shiro would kill me if you got hurt… not to mention Lance would never speak to me again,” he frowned down at her, doing his best to ignore her pleading eyes.

“Keith come on!” Pidge groaned, rolling her eyes, “please, I have spent the last month watching a newborn by myself. It gets boring they don't do much other than poop, cry and sleep, we’ve been avoiding all Galra activity so I could recover, so there has been no action at all and…”

“And?”

She bit her lip slightly, no longer looking him in the eye, “and I’m all healed now so please.”

Keith could see her gripping the edge of her jumper and pulling it further down to cover her body. He gave a small sigh and gestured towards the area in front of him.

“Start stretching.”

She smiled and skipped towards the spot he gestured to, starting to stretch herself the best she could with her limited knowledge of stretching. Keith occasionally walked over and moved her slightly without a word so she was stretching properly.

“So Hunk is taking care of Sam? What about Lance?” he asked stepping back to watch her stretch her legs.

“Well Lance usually gets him but he’s helping Coran with some cleaning stuff so Hunk said he’d take him,” she shrugged as a smug grin grew on her face, “why? Do you miss him?~”

Keith’s face turned a soft pink at her teasing, “ten push ups to start with.”

“Oh come on! Gimme something, we haven't had a bonding talk in forever.”

“Yes I miss him,” he shrugged a little, “plus I’ve been thinking about our future and stuff… now ten push ups.”

Pidge sat on the floor and started getting into position, “your future, how?”

“Well, you and Shiro have a baby. Hunk’s in the process of trying to convince Shay to come live in the castle, it's just got me thinking is all,” he admitted, sitting down so he could see better.

Pidge almost fell backwards at his first sentence, “wait! you know about Sam’s dad?! Oh I’m going to kill Lance!”

“Lance knows?” He blinked, “he didn't tell me.”

“Then how?”

“Well I saw Shiro leave your room the morning after the party and then like two weeks later you, or well Lance, announced the pregnancy. I put two and two together,” he raised a brow, “plus you’d have to be really dense to not see that Sam is basically a Shiro copy in miniature.”

Pidge looked down at the ground with a large deep frown before looking up at him with pleading eyes, “please don't tell him… I really don't want him to hear it from anyone else…”

“I won't tell him, but you have to, it's kind of shitty to not tell him.”

“I know… it's just hard. Sam’s my son…”

“He’s Shiro too.”

She looked back at the ground for awhile not sure what to say, “so ten push-ups?”

Keith nodded as she got back into position. Pidge grunted as she slowly pushed herself up, far too out of shape to even be doing this much.

“You’re doing it wrong…” Keith said as he watched.

“I am?”

“Yeah, do it right.”

Pidge lost her hold and dropped to the floor, “how?”

“Just do it.”

“Keith that isn't good advice.”

“Like this,” he said getting into a pushup position and doing one, “see?”

“That's what I was doing!” Pidge frowned as she sat up.

“No it wasn't!” He also sat up, folding his arms over his chest.

The two glared at each other until the training room door hissed open and someone entered the room.   
It was Shiro, wandering in to do his own work out. He raised one of his thick brows at the pair sitting glaring at one another.

“Is everything okay in here?” He asked, moving closer to them.

“Pidge isn't doing the push-ups right!” Keith spat, not breaking his glare.

“And Keith won't tell me where I’m wrong!” She snipped back, also not breaking her stare either.

Shiro looked between the two and sighed, “Pidge, show my your push-up.”

She stuck her tongue out at Keith before lying back down. Keith frowned more before getting up and leaving the room as Shiro shook his head at the pair’s childishness.

Pidge grunted again as she pushed herself up once again, her arms wobbling under her own body weight. Shiro carefully tapped her hands with his foot so she could adjust her position until the wobbling stopped.

“Oh wow this is much butter.”

“It's all about form,” he smiled and set himself up next to her.

Pidge looked over to him as he instantly began to do push ups flawlessly, nearly hardly breaking a sweat. She finished a few more push ups before sitting up to wipe the sweat from her brow, and to simply watch the handsome man she admired continue to be perfect in every way. Her mind drifted slightly to the night she barely remembered. She could still feel his warm kisses on her neck and the scent of his sweat in the air. 

“Pidge are you okay?” Shiro’s voice broke through her daydream, dragging her back to the present as he sat up.

“Oh yeah I’m fine! Just a little tired, maybe working out on little sleep wasn't such a good idea,” she blushed, unconsciously playing with the hem of her jumper.

“You don't have to keep going if you don't want to, go take a nap,” he suggested lightly touching her shoulder, “and if you want, later I could show you some workouts for your core. You just had a baby so your core is really important.”

“Yeah sure I might take you up on that offer…” she said with a smile as she got up and headed to the door.

As she reached the door she turned to look at him, no time like the present to tell him, “Shiro…”

“Yeah?” He looked over at her with that warm smile of his that almost made her melt.

“Thank you for helping with the push-ups…” she said quickly before rushing down the hall.

Another attempt to tell him resulting in her chickening out, at this rate someone else was going to end up telling him… or Sam would never really have a father in his life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pidge just tell him how you feel! and what kind of future you thinking of Keith hmmmmm???
> 
> As always enjoy guys!


	13. The Cat's Out Of The Bag

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pidge finally allows Shiro to spend the day with Sam and he starts to notice some similarities.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OMG! This fic managed to reach other 2000 hits as of chapter 12! Thank you all so much for the support for this silly little fic and lets hope for a boat load more chapters!

Shiro sighed as he flicked through the book he was reading, unable to focus on the words. His mind was filled with worry for Pidge, she had basically spent the last two months since their little workout session avoiding him, always going to the others if she needed help with Sam and giving him very short answers if he did try to talk to her. He slouched more into his seat on the rounded couch, reading the same page again in the hope it would actually go in this time.

Keith was sitting on the opposite couch, carefully cleaning his Marmora blade. He glanced up and frowned at Shiro as he sighed again.

“Shiro if you are just gonna make noise then leave,” he said, putting his cloth down to inspect the shine on the blade.

“Sorry, Keith. Just struggling to focus.”

“I'm sure Pidge will let you take care of the baby at some point. She’s just going to those with more experience like Lance, she’ll come around eventually,” he put the blade next to him and looked at Shiro again. Who was looking a little embarrassed that his problems were so obvious. 

Shiro shut his book, “she's been avoiding me Keith, she won't even stay in the same room as me.”

“I’m sure she has her reasons,” Keith rolled his eyes at the thought of Pidge hiding from Shiro because of everything that's been going on.

Shiro closed his eyes with a sigh, “I'm sure you're right.”

Keith picked up his blade again to finish polishing it up but was very quickly interrupted by an extremely tired looking Pidge carrying a crying baby.

“Keith, can you watch Sam for just an hour while I get some work done please,” she pleaded, standing in front of him.

“Ew no, I don't work with children,” he frowned, moving the blade closer to his body. Keeping it safely out of baby Sam’s grasping hands.

“Please Keith, I’m working with live wires and he keeps trying to grab at them, and everyone else is busy, please.”

“I'm not busy,” Shiro said standing up and moving to stand beside her, “I'll look after him.”

“Don't you have important leader things to do?” She instinctively held Sam closer to her chest and took a step away from him, as if she was trying to protect him.

“If by important leader things you mean reading the same page in a book for several hours, then sure. Come on Pidge, I’ll watch him for a few hours while you work,” he moved closer to take the baby from her, trying to hide how upset he was at Pidge's defensive step away, “and if you want I can take him for longer. You look like you haven't slept in a week and you kind of have… something in your hair.”

Pidge adjusted her hold so she could touch her hair only to find a wet substance in there, “are you sure?”

“Yes I’m sure.”

She studied his smiling face for a few seconds before looking down at Sam. With a sigh she carefully handed Shiro the crying child, who stopped almost instantly after a few rocks from Shiro.

“Everything you need is in the bag…” she put the bag that was slung over her shoulder down next to Shiro’s feet, “food is in the kitchen, if you can't find it Coran and Hunk know where it is, and if that doesn't help, come and find me there might not be any left…”

Shiro nodded and smiled at her, “don't worry, I have this. Go work, shower and nap. We’ll come and visit if he misses you too much.”

Pidge couldn't help but smile at how natural Shiro looked with their child in his arms. She stood on her toes slightly to gave Sam a soft kiss on his fuzzy head.

“You be good Sammy, I’ll be back soon,” she smoothed his soft black hair and looked up at Shiro, “thank you.”

“No problem” he smiled at her.

She smiled back and gave Sam a last wave before shooting Keith a warning glance and heading out the door to finally get some time to herself.

Shiro sat back down on the couch and smiled at Keith, “I guess you were right, she did come around.”

“Good for you,” Keith gave a small smile before putting his blade safely away so Sam couldn't get it.

“And I’m sure taking care of a baby can't be that hard,” he nodded and rocked Sam a little.

Sam's face slowly scrunched up before he began to coo and smile as a foul smell filled the air.

“I'm not cleaning that up,” Keith said, getting up and heading out of the room, leaving Shiro alone with the stinking child.

\---

A few hours of babysitting was the most tiring thing Shiro had ever done. Sam cried on the hour every hour for various different reasons, whether he needed changing or fed or he was just tired but Shiro managed to tackle every problem.

Now the two sat on the floor, Sam curled up asleep in Shiro's arms and Shiro leaning his back against the wall and almost falling asleep himself. He glanced down occasionally at the sleeping baby, this was his first time actually looking at Sam close up and he was starting to notice something strange about his face.

Though still mostly baby fat, Shiro could swear that Sam had a similar jaw line to Shiro and the same ears as well. His nose was almost an exact copy, besides the scar, and the the thick, dark hair of his brows and the little fuzz on his head reminded Shiro of pictures of himself that his mother used to have hanging on the wall in the hall back home on earth. 

“There’s my boy,” Lance’s voice rang down the hall and he skipped towards Shiro.

“Shh! I just got him to sleep,” Shiro hissed, keeping his voice a whisper.

“Oh sorry,” Lance whispered back, plopping himself down next to Shiro, “so Pidge finally let you watch him?”

“I don't think she had a choice, everyone was busy and Keith said no,” he shrugged, focusing back on studying Sam’s small face for any indication his suspicion was wrong.

“Well if you’ve successfully done it once, I’m sure you’ll be her first choice next time,” Lance said, avoiding looking Shiro in the eye and trying his best not to let anything slip.

Shiro sensed Lance’s secrecy and raised a brow at him, “hey Lance, you’re Pidge’s friend right?”

“I'm probably her best friend if I’m being honest,” Lance beamed.

“So if she figured out who Sam’s dad was she would tell you right? And because you're you, you would tell Keith?” 

“Well it depends. I came across the truth by accident, I didn't tell Keith. Did tell Hunk though…” he admitted, looking down at the ground.

“So you know?” Shiro sat up a little.

“Do you?” Lance looked up slightly panicked that he said too much.

“Yes.”

“Oh thank god!” Lance let out a sigh of relief, “I couldn't keep this in much longer, I’m so happy she told you!”

Shiro blinked at him, surprised at how gullible Lance was being.

“So that's why you’re watching him, gotta have some father son bonding. Totally get it, no longer upset that she didn't drag me away from cleaning with Coran, to watch him again.”

Shiro looked at Sam, shock written all over his face that his suspicions were correct, “he’s mine?”

Lance almost got whiplash from how quickly he whipped his head around to look at Shiro with wide eyes, “you didn't know… you tricked me!”

“I have to find Pidge,” Shiro said, getting up, trying to be careful not to wake Sam up.

“Shiro!” Lance got up and followed Shiro as he walked down the hall.

Shiro found Pidge exactly where he expected to, elbow deep in the green lion’s tech adding another upgrade. He marched over, a large frown of growing anger painted across his face.

Pidge glanced over when she heard the footsteps and gave the boys a small smile, unable to see Shiro’s anger from how away she was. She climbed down from her spot on the lion's head and walked straight over to Shiro, taking Sam from him.

“Hey baby, did you miss me? I hope he wasn't too much trouble,” she said, kissing the tip of Sam’s head.

“He was fine.”

Pidge looked up, sensing his angry tone, “is something wrong?”

“Is Sam my son, Katie?” He snapped, his face like thunder, causing Pidge to take a step back and hold Sam closer.

“Shiro I tried to tell you…” she said sheepishly, rocking Sam carefully in her arms.

“Tried?! Katie there isn't any trying in stuff like this!” He snapped. Shiro's sudden shouting caused Sam to wake up.

“I’m sorry, I did try, I was scared how you would react,” she said, quickly turning to Sam to soothe him before he started the cry.

“How did you think I would react?!”

“Like this!” She finally snapped back at him, her volume raising to match him.

Sam sniffled softly before bursting into tears.

“Well of course I’m going to act like this! I’m his dad and you didn't tell me about it!” 

“No you're not his dad!” She took another step away from him, “He has your genes but you are not his dad!”

The two’s heated argument was so intense, neither of them noticed Lance sneaking in and taking Sam away to soothe him of his crying, “it's okay little guy, Uncle Lance has got you.”

“I would be if you told me! I have a right to be his dad!” Shiro took a step towards her.

“No you don't! He doesn't need a Dad he has me! He doesn't need anyone else! I'm his mother I will look after him on my own, we don't need you,” she took a step forward and shoved a slender finger against Shiro’s chest, “we don't need Lance we don't need anyone else!”

Pidge pushed passed Shiro and grabbed Sam from Lance’s hold, “Green close your hatch!” She called behind her.

The Green lion gave a mechanised purr in response and there was a soft hissing as she closed her hatch and another hiss as Pidge left the hanger and headed down the hall. Shiro grit his teeth and headed off in a different direction from where Pidge went, completely ignoring Lance’s attempt to talk to him.

\---

Later that evening Lance and Keith were getting ready for bed, Lance with his various different creams and lotions and Keith just waiting for Lance to finish up.

“I shouldn't have even said anything until I was sure… now none of us have access to Sam,” Lance moaned as he finished washing off his face mask.

“It's not your fault Lance. Shiro said he knew the secret to trick you, he is surprisingly sneaky,” Keith shrugged, watching Lance as he paused going about his routine as he looked for something, “you left the orange tub on the bedside table.”

“Ah,” Lance turned around and headed back towards the bed, “Pidge trusted me with this secret and I blew it…” he picked up the orange tub and applied the last of the lotion.

“As I said to Shiro this morning, she’ll come around. Now if you’re finished will all the unnecessary primping come to bed,” Keith gestured to the spot next to him.

Lance sighed and sat down next to him, “I wouldn't be surprised if she didn't.”

“They’re both being selfish about it, they need to talk about what's best for Sam,” Keith leaned his head on Lance’s shoulder.

“Yeah…” Lance sighed staying quiet for a moment, “hey… I’ve been thinking… about us.”

“You have?” Keith sat up and looked at him, searching for any negative emotions.

Lance nodded, “I think we should adopt a kid. Like as soon as possible because I love you a shit tonne and I want to start a family with you.”

Keith frowned, “are you insane? No.”

“Why not?” Lance pouted.

“Well you know I don't do well with children, I can barely be in the same room as Pidge’s kid, and I know that Pidge and Shiro aren't but we aren't ever married,” he folded his arms over his chest as he spoke.

“So if we were married you would consider it?”

“That's not what I meant. I agree we should take the next step but that step is definitely not kids, that's like a seven steps ahead of where we are now.”

Lance sighed, “Okay. I can wait but I’m making what I want perfectly clear right here and now, I want a big white wedding on Earth with my whole family and I want kids even if it's just one.”

“Do we have to wait till we get back to earth? That could be years,” Keith smiled and Lance’s little plan.

“What do you mean?”

“I didn't want to ask you like this because I don't have a ring or anything but,” Keith took hold of Lance’s soft hand and tangled their fingers together, “why don't we get married, preferably soon, in space, just us?”

Lance felt his face heat up and his heart beat at a million miles an hour, “how soon?”

“Depends on if you say yes to this terrible attempt at asking.”

“Are you?”

Keith leaned over and kissed Lance softly, “marry me Lance McClain. Be my space ranger partner for ever.”

Lance almost imploded right there and then, squeezing Keith’s hand as hard as he could before kissing him deeply.

“So is that a yes?”

“It's a hell yes!” Lance kissed him again, hoping the kissing would stop his squeals.

Laughing loudly, Keith kissed Lance back, waiting for his excitement to pass.

“Now I don't have a ring or anything like that, you will get one don't worry your little head, but for now,” Keith got up and headed over to his folded pile of clothes, pulling out his blade of Maumora and forcing it to turn into its dagger form, “have this.”

“You’re super secret Galra only blade that you got from your parents?” Lance said, barely taking any space between the words.

“It's all I have of value, you can give it back when we get you a ring.”

Lance stood up and took the knife from him, “oh man I can't wait to tell Hunk and Pidge tomorrow…” he bounced up and down slightly, clearly unable to contain his excitement.

“If you want to go now I’ll keep the bed warm,” Keith smiled at Lance’s bouncing.

“Really?! Okay I’ll try to be quick!” Lance turned on his heel and ran down the hall screaming Hunk’s name over and over.

Keith rolled his eyes and climbed into bed just as he heard Hunk’s terrified screeches filling the castle, maybe he should have told Lance not to run at people with a knife. He nestled himself down in bed, unable to contain his own smile of joy. So today wasn't bad for everyone now was it?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The cat is out of the bag! It took 13 chapters but finally Shiro knows the truth. I know a few people commented about how happy Shiro would be when he finds out and don't get me wrong he is happy, but wouldn't you be upset too if you had a son and you didn't find out for three months?  
> Also "be my space ranger partner forever" is the only way I will accept a marriage proposal from now on.
> 
> This is the longest chapter of this fic but a lot needed to be done so I'm glad its finally out there.
> 
> as always I hope you enjoyed!


	14. Fighting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shiro comes to terms with the fact he's now a father and continues to deal with the idea that Pidge is refusing to allow him access to Sam.
> 
> Meanwhile Lance gets started on his wedding plans

“She's being unreasonable Keith. He’s my son! I should be allowed to spend time with him!” Shiro shouted, pacing back and forth, still fuming from his argument with Pidge the day before.

“Shiro sit down,” Keith said, keeping his voice as calm as possible, “you have to think of this from her perspective.”

“What perspective! She hid the fact I was his father! She's in the wrong here!”

“Well she did do it because she was scared…”

“Scared of what?!”

“This. You’re shouting and screaming at me and at her. Sam is her kid, she has every right to be scared of someone else coming into that and ruining it,” Keith gestured to the seat next to him, “just come over here and calm down.”

Shiro groaned and sat down, putting his head in his hands, “I have a son.”

“Congrats,” Keith smiled, “he looks just like you, he's a real sweetie, you’d make a good Dad.”

Shiro looked over at Keith with a raised brow.

“I've been holding onto this for three months, I need to get it all out now that you know,” Keith shrugged.

“She told you too?”

“No, I figured it out. I’m a real Sherlock Holmes. You could be Watson!” He smiled trying to make light of the situation.

Shiro groaned again at Keith's attempt at a joke and went back to thinking.

Suddenly Matt burst into the room, Allura close behind him trying to talk him out of whatever he was planning. Matt stormed over to Shiro, face red with rage.

“Shiro! I trusted you! We talked about how we were gonna get the guy who did this to Katie, and it was you all along!” The shorter boy snapped as Shiro stood up.

“Matt I only just found out..”

“No! No! I trusted you! You got my sister pregnant and now you’re skipping out on her and Sam! What, they aren't good enough for you?!”

“Pidge won't let me!” Shiro snapped back, feeling his rage bubble over again.

“Likely story! I can't believe you, I thought you were my friend but it turns out no, you’re just as bad if not worse than the Galra. They wouldn't betray their friend or abandon their child!” Matt yelled, taking a step forward.

“I'm bad? Your sister is the one whose rotten! She hid who Sam’s dad was from all of us! And I’ll let you in on a little secret Matthew, it was your sister who insisted we went unprotected.” Shiro stepped closer, moving his face only inches away from Matts.

Matt didn't even think, he just swung his fist and clocked Shiro right in the nose. The bigger man stumbled back, holding his nose, trying to process what happened. When he felt blood trickle down his face he lunged forward, only to be held back by Keith. With a snarl Matt went in for another hit but Allura stepped in sweeping him off his feet and carrying him to the other side of the room.

“Matt calm down! And you!” Allura turned to Shiro, as she set Matt down, “you calm down as well! There is no sense in pointless name calling and fighting!”

Shiro broke free from Keith’s hold and sat back down, entering a glaring contest with Matt, who sat seething on the far side of the room, staring daggers at Shiro.

“You two are supposed to be friends! Yes it's bad that Shiro isn't helping take care of Sam but Pidge is also in the wrong for not telling him about it. Both of them are at fault.”

“I agree with Allura. Y’all gotta settle down, and talk it out,” Keith said, breaking Shiro’s state with a snap on his fingers.

“I have nothing to say to him,” Matt scoffed, getting up and leaving.

Allura sighed and shot a sad look at Shiro before following after him.

“Shiro…” Keith said, looking down at his friend.

“I have done nothing wrong. I’m going to my room,” he snapped, also leaving.

Keith sighed and headed off to find Lance.

\---

“There you are,” Keith said as he stepped into the dining area, finding Lance cradling a cooing Sam, “hey I thought we were banned from caring for the kid.”

“We are but Hunk isn't and he needed to pee so I’m holding him just for the time being,” Lance smiled, looking over at his fiancé feeling all giddy inside.

“Didn't need to know that at all…” Keith frowned, sitting next to him.

Lance kissed his cheek once he was settled in his seat before looking back at the baby, “so you want to hold him?”

“No thanks… I’ve seen him projectile vomit down your back. I’m not dressed for that.”

“Meanie,” Lance pouted before turning his attention back to Sam.

It wasn't long before Hunk was back, gingerly walking around the table. Still frightened from what he had assumed was Lance trying to kill him last night. He sat across the table and gave Keith a small greeting before looking at Lance.

“I saw Allura on the way, she's trying to calm Matt down. Apparently he hit Shiro,” Hunk said adjusting his seat slightly.

“He did, made Shiro’s nose bleed,” Keith responded, causing Hunk to give a pained hiss at the idea, “so what's with the little meeting.”

“I was gonna call you over as well anyway so it's fine. With the exclusion of Pidge because she is working and I didn't want to invite Shiro because of everything, we’re gonna plan the wedding. The little one you want, the big one is for when my Mama and Papa are involved,” Lance explained, looking over to Keith.

Keith nodded slightly, “then I'm going to get a drink, knowing you this will take a million years.”

Lance quickly gave him another kiss before he left and turned his full attention to Sam, thinking about what his own kids would look like. He carefully wiped a small amount of dirt off Sam’s face before giving off a happy sigh.

It wasn't long before Hunk, Allura and Keith were back in the room. Allura demanded to hold Sam, and Lance had no choice but to hand him over. Hunk sat at the edge of his seat, clearly ready to bolt if something bad happened.

“I am sorry Hunk,” Lance said with a smile, “I was excited, I’m getting married!”

“Doesn't mean you had to chase me around the castle with a knife,” Hunk frowned in response, “I thought I was going to die!”

“I probably shouldn't have given him a weapon. My bad buddy,” Keith interjected with an apologetic smile.

“Enough talk about me almost killing Hunk! Allura did you look into different planets we could go to?” Lance said, looking at Allura.

“Well I know of a planet that might work, though I’m not sure if we’ll be passing by it any time soon though,” she said glancing up from Sam for a moment to respond.

“I’m sure whenever we get to it is fine,” Lance said looking up at Keith, “and guest list Hunk?”

“Those of us who are in the castle? And Shay if she's with us at that time?” He suggested.

“It's good but like what if we invited everyone, like all the good aliens we’ve met so far! The balmarans, the Mermaids, Keith’s blade of Marmora buddies? It’ll be really fun!”

Allura and Hunk both made sounds of agreement and the three began to discuss other things that would turn their small wedding they had agreed on, into something much grander and over the top. After a while of the chatter Keith cleared his throat.

“Y’all be crazy. We said a small space wedding now, big wedding later Lance…” he said, taking a sip of his drink.

Lance stopped talking instantly and turned to Keith, “what did you just say?”

“We said small wedding now, big wedding later?”

“No before that.”

“Y’all be crazy?”

Lance’s face lit up with pure joy, “aw man I forgot I’m marrying a cowboy!”

“Okay that's it I’m leaving,” Keith got up and headed for the door.

“No! Babe wait! Please say Yeehaw for me! I want it as my text tone! Babe!” And with that Keith just walked faster, leaving Lance pouting at the table.

“I don't think teasing him about where he’s from is a good idea Lance,” Said Hunk as he leaned his chin on his hand.

“We do this kind of stuff all the time, it’s just a little fun. When I see him again later he will have found some Spanish phrase to completely botch and get me upset,” Lance shrugged.

“You two are very understanding of each other,” Allura said looking over at Lance, “it's nice.”

“It's more surprising than anything, you two are both super head strong it would have been safer to assume that you would fight all the time,” Hunk raised a brow at Lance.

“Well, we argue but it's never anything big. I get that he doesn't want a big fancy wedding or lots of kids but he also gets that I do and we talk about it,” Lance shrugged, “we compromise. We’re gonna have two weddings, and a dog… I’m trying to convince him to turn that dog into a child but maybe a dog is the next best thing if he won't budge.”

“That's like the perfect relationship right there,” Hunk smiled, “so one small wedding on Allura’s mystery planet with all of us here? I’ll make some good food, we’ll find a way to plug your iPod into something for music?”

“Yes please,” Lance beamed at them, “and I’m sure we’ll find a space minister somewhere to marry us.”

“Coran can do it, I’ll go ask him now,” Allura interrupted, carefully handing Sam back to Hunk.

“Coran is ordained?”

“Yes. He said he did it for a friend back on Altea.”

“Wouldn't it have run out by now? It's been forever since then right?” Hunk said, not wanting to bring up any bad memories for her.

“We can see if it still holds. There are some versions that last a very long time, for those who live for just as long,” She smiled, “I’ll ask him for you.”

“Thank you Allura,” Lance smiled as he watched her leave.

“I’m gonna go see if Pidge wants Sam back,” Hunk said, standing up to leave Lance alone with his imagination.

Lance gave a contented sigh as he thought. One small wedding on a little planet in the middle of nowhere, where no one could disturb them, then going home to his big dream wedding surrounded by virtually anyone who would come and then a small baby curled up in his arms. He wondered what their baby would look like, would it be human or would they adopt some alien orphan with no one to care for them? Only time would tell what the future had in store.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Matt chill it's not Shiro's fault! and Lance is very excited to be marrying a cowboy, as would anyone.
> 
> Thank you all for all the positive feedback on previous chapters it really means a whole lot and I hope that you also enjoy this chapter as well.


	15. Arguments Continue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pidge and Shiro continue to argue about whether or not Shiro should be apart of Sam's life as Shiro and Keith come up with a way to slowly build up Pidge's trust.

The last few months were hell for those inside the castle, with Lance doing nothing but talking about his wedding and every fine detail of it, and Shiro and Pidge at each other's throats constantly. It hadn't been a good time.  
In Lance’s case, his wedding talk distracted him from any training but when faced with real enemies he zoned in and did his best to work with the others. In the case of Pidge and Shiro… nothing could stop their arguments.

“We have to form Voltron if we want to push them back,” Shiro commanded, maneuvering the black lion around the smaller Galra fighters.

“No we don't,” Pidge said bitterly, “we’re doing fine we don't need you coming in and changing anything.”

“Changing? I’m the leader!”

“So you think that gives you the right to barge in on stuff that has nothing to do with you!” Pidge snapped back at him.

“Guys can we like focus on the bad guys please?” Pleaded Hunk, darting past both of them to stay out of the way of lasers.

“I do have a right, this does have something to do with me!” Shiro snapped, completely ignoring Hunk’s pleads for peace, “I’m the leader of this team!”

“Yeah well I’ve been with the team for longer, so what I say goes!”

Suddenly there was a crackle on the coms as Allura spoke, “they’re forcing the coms open. I can't stop them.”

“Voltron!” The booming voice of General Hatcha rang through the coms, “it seems you are in a pickle.”

“Wait is this the same guy from just before Sam was born?” Lance asked, swinging round to push Pidge out of the way of fire.

“So you remember me! Excellent! I am offering you an opportunity to-” the General was quickly cut off by further arguing between Pidge and Shiro.

“But I should still be involved with the team! I have a right!” Shiro shouted, his lion moving closer towards the green lion.

“No, no you shouldn't! The team doesn't need you. The team has me and it doesn't need anyone else!” She shouted back.

“Are… are they fighting?” Hatcha asked.

“Trust me we wish they would stop,” Keith groaned.

There was the sound of rustling on the coms “Pst, Lieutenant Varo, can… can you go get snacks for everyone? This is probably the most entertaining thing we’ve seen since Captain Turup got stuck in the trash shoot,” the General whispered to his second in command, who quickly ran off to do as he was told.

“Pidge! He's my son! I deserve to be a part of his life!” Shiro continued, “you can't keep me from seeing him.”

“I can and I will! He's not your son he’s my son, he doesn't need you he has me!” Pidge yelled back, “we don't need you Shiro!”

“The Galra seem to have stopped attacking, we should get these two back to the castle before they start shooting at each other,” Keith suggested, moving towards Shiro and starting to push the black lion towards the castle ship.

Hunk moved to join Keith in pushing Shiro back towards the castle while Lance began to push Pidge.

“Um General?” One of the underlings said as there was a sound of Hatcha shoving some kind of snack into his mouth came through the coms. 

“Shhh Turup, I want to know what he did to lose access to their child,” Hatcha said.

“But Voltron are… getting away.”

“Wait what?!” He snapped, finally looking towards the castle as it moved through a wormhole.

“Oh come on!” He shouted, slamming his fist onto the dash in front of him.

\---

Allura stood outside the hanger, her face hard with rage as she waited for Pidge and Shiro to come into the hall. When they did, they were still in the middle of their heated argument, yelling at about how unreasonable the other was being and about whether or not Sam needed Shiro in his life. Once they were standing in front of Allura she quickly put Sam, whom she was holding, in Lance’s arms.

“Will the two of you stop this!” She snapped, causing them both to stop and look at her, “we almost lost to them today because the two of you were arguing about something so petty.”

Pidge looked over at Shiro with a frown, “it's not petty. Sam is my son, I should decide if Shiro gets access to him, and I say he doesn't.”

“Sam is my son too and I should have a say in his life,” Shiro frowned, looking back at her.

“Both of you are to be separated, this arguing can't be good for Sam. So either you two go and sit apart in order to think about it. Or I will have to find new paladins for the black and green lion's,” Allura warned before turning on her heel and heading down the hall.

The two scowled at each other for a moment before Pidge broke the stare by moving to grab Sam from Lance. Shiro took a step forward but thought twice about his actions and headed off in a completely different direction, Keith not far behind him. Hunk and Lance looked at one another before following Pidge, the team was completely divided.

\----

“So Watson,” Keith began, sitting down next to Shiro, “what are you going to do?”

“I thought if I could talk to her about it like civil adults but she's not budging and it just ends in arguments,” sighed Shiro, putting his head in his hands, “I want to spend time with my son Keith… I deserve at least that.”

Keith placed his hand on his friend’s back, rubbing it lightly, “maybe she wants you to prove yourself?”

“Prove myself?”

“Well I know that when Lance is being stubborn and talking doesn't work… showing him works better. So maybe Pidge is the same?” He suggested, giving a small shrug.

“Maybe… I could paint the nursery? Pidge said she hated the yellow…” Shiro’s brow furrowed as he thought.

“It's a start. And maybe, don't argue back?” Keith folded his arms over his chest, “just makes her more mad.”

Shiro nodded lightly, “we still have paint from when Lance was picking a colour?”

“Should do, I’ll ask where it is.”

“And could you borrow Pidge's laptop? see if Hunk can make some sort of decals to make things easier.”

“Wow, make me do all the hard work why don't you?” Keith frowned.

“I need to remove all the furniture from the nursery and I need to make sure that Pidge won't be going into the room while I’m painting. All while staying out of her way,” Shiro glanced over at Keith.

“Okay I take it back,” Keith got up and headed out of the room to find Lance and Hunk to complete the tasks he was assigned.

Standing up, Shiro stretched before heading out towards the nursery, being ever so careful not to run into Pidge and Sam on the way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry this one is so late!!!! I've been rather busy working on a few other fics and some of the stuff to fill my stall at a local convention Im going to be attending later this year that I almost forgot about A Growing Pride entirely, hopefully I'll get back into the swing of having Pride up twice a week while also working on a few other things.
> 
> I always post on my tumblrs when ever I update (main; CarcinoKattasic, writing/craft; CarcinoWriting) so feel free to follow me on there if you don't have this fic bookmarked and want to know when a new chapter comes out ((Shameless self promo I know))
> 
> but as always I hope you all enjoy this chapter and feel free to leave comments to let me know what you think!


	16. Lost

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pidge comes across Shiro's plan to redecorate the nursery while trying to comfort her crying child before a nap. This small gesture starts to get her wondering about if she was too judgemental before, maybe Shiro does deserve a chance to be a good father.

Sam’s wails had become painful to Pidge’s ears, over the last half hour she’d been trying to get him settled for a nap with little success. She knew well enough by now that her little six month old never slept without the toy lion Lance had made him, but she couldn’t find it. Pidge had searched every known place on the ship with no results.   
Well it would be every place if Keith and Lance weren’t standing outside the nursery like body guards, refusing her access inside it. 

“Look. I have a grumpy baby who will not sleep without that lion. You will let me inside there so I can look for it, otherwise neither of you will live to see your wedding day or each other,” She snapped at them, shouting over the crying child nestled in her arms.

“Or each other?” Lance asked, gulping slightly as he took a step away from the short angry woman.

“I will destroy both of you to the point where your atoms will be unrecognisable,” She growled, making Keith very quickly side step out of her way, with Lance not far behind him.

Pidge opened the door and was taken aback by what she saw. Shiro was up on a ladder, painting the the ceiling of the room jet black, and he was covered in a lot of paint, all of the furniture was covered with sheets, and there were a few more pots of paint sitting around the floor in a few different ‘universe’ colours. He almost fell off the ladder when the door opened, not expecting to hear an extremely loud child or to see Pidge.

“Pidge, I um…”

“What are you doing?” she asked, rocking Sam slightly to lessen his cries.

“You said you hated the yellow, so I thought I would make it look a little like space…” He stepped down off the ladder.

Pidge was about to ask another question but her attention was stolen by Sam as he thrashed his arms about in his little tantrum.

“Shhh Sammy…”

“May I?” Shiro said, wiping the wet paint off his hands.

She instinctively pulled Sam closer to her chest.

“Come on, just once won't hurt…” 

Shiro gently lifted the crying child out of Pidge’s arms. Holding Sam close, he began to bounce him slighting and make soft ‘shoosh’ noises to him. Pidge ran her fingers through her hair before starting her search, looking under all the sheets for the little black lion her son loved so much.

As Sam began to settle down, becoming slightly fascinated with his father’s face, Shiro turned to watch what Pidge was doing.

“What are you looking for?”

“The black lion, surprisingly Sam won't sleep without it…” She said, lifting a sheet of the toy box and starting the rummage through.

“Oh I think I saw it on the bookshelf when I was covering everything up,” he gestured towards one of the covered items and Pidge quickly turned her search towards it.

She soon found the lion and turned to Shiro in order to get Sam back, “thank you… I um have some glow in the dark stars on the shelf in my room, you can use them in here if you want..”

“Okay,” Shiro gave her a small smile as she took the child and left. A small amount of joy filled his chest as he got back to painting, maybe things can work out between them.

\---

Pidge had finally got Sam down for a nap in the small play pen she had set up in the hanger of the Green Lion. She made her way over to the great metal beast, ready to start tinkering away with its inner workings, when a large yawn emerged from deep within her. She had barely noticed it but she hadn't slept much in the last few days with Sam being so unsettled in his sleep pattern but now that he was finally down for at least an hour she could finally rest. She sat on the floor in front of her lion as another yawn emerged and closed her eyes, a small nap won't hurt anyone.

She slept soundly for what must have been just over an hour as when she woke up she felt extremely groggy, and felt like she could go back to her bed but the cold floor encouraged her to wake up. Rubbing her eyes, Pidge got up and made her way over to play area to check on Sam, praying to whatever alien god that he was still asleep so she could either do some actual work or go back to sleep herself. Leaning over the edge of the play area her heart sank deep into the pit of her stomach.

Sam wasn't where she had left him.

Almost instantly the panic began to set in, she felt her chest tighten as if someone has placed a heavy slab of stone on her chest, her baby wasn't where he should be and every possible terrible outcome filled her mind. She took a few small breaths to calm herself down enough to think rationally. Lance. He must have seen she was sleeping and taken Sam to get something to eat, a totally normal thing for Lance to do despite the fact he was banned from looking after Sam after everything that had happened with Shiro.

With a few small breaths she headed off to find Lance. She easily found him with Hunk in the kitchen.

“Lance do you have Sam?” She tried her best to hide her panic but her heavy breathing and watery eyes gave her away.

“No? Why would I have him?” Lance looked up from the little screen he was watching and his eyes went wide as he took in her panicked state, “Pidge are you okay?!”

“I fell asleep, I fell asleep and I should have been watching him,” tears slipped down her cheek as she tried to process what was happening to her.

Both Lance and Hunk dropped what they were doing to comfort her. 

“No, this isn't your fault. I’m sure Shiro has him right?” Hunk said, rubbing her back softly, “I saw him with a bundle not too long ago…”

Suddenly Pidge’s panic was replaced with rage, she wiped her eyes on her jumper sleeve and stormed off.   
She had offered him an olive branch, a chance to prove himself in smaller tasks, and he's just snapped it in half by stealing Sam from her.

“Shiro! Where is he?!” She snapped the moment she saw Shiro, who was still painting the nursery.

“Where’s who?” Shiro asked, looking away from the small stars he was painting on the wall.

“You know who! Where is he? I know I fell asleep but you didn't need to just take him!” Her volume grew at his blank expression.

“Wait Sam is missing?” Shiro stood up, watching Pidge’s anger melt away and be replaced with the panic once again.

“You don't have him? Oh god,” she covered her mouth as she ran off back to her hanger.

Shiro was close behind her, “Pidge… Katie! What happened?”

“I-I fell asleep,” she stuttered as she began to look in every corner of the hanger, “I didn't mean to but I was just so tired I… oh my god he's gone… Takashi he’s gone…”

Shiro began searching the room as well and it wasn't long before Lance and Hunk joined them. 

“He's pried the side of the play area off… he must have crawled out,” Hunk said as he inspected the walls of the play area.

“So he could be anywhere?” Shiro clicked his tongue in frustration before turning to look at Pidge.

She was in a complete melt down, her face soaked with tears as she hyperventilated and began to pull at her hair, murdering about how this was all her fault.

“You guys stay with her, I’ll go search the castle,” Shiro ordered and Lance rushed over to comfort Pidge the best he could.

“Pidge it’s not your fault…” Lance said, rubbing her back softly.

Shiro placed a hand on Pidge's shoulder, bending down to be at eye level with the panicked mother, “Katie, I will find him. He will be okay.”

She nodded softly, leaning into Lance’s rubbing slightly as Shiro ran off to search the castle and maybe find help along the way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OMG! We got to 200 Kudos on this fic and we've very close to having it reach 3000 hits!!! I just want to say thank you to everyone who reads this, despite my failing to keep with a schedule I had laid out for this fic, all the kind comments and support really means a lot to me so thank you!  
> As always enjoy the chapter and let me know what you think, this one is rather dramatic after all.


	17. Finding Sam

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shiro and Kieth scour the castle to find out where the small 6 month old baby has wandered off to.

Screaming out the name of his lost son, Shiro ran through the halls of the castle in a desperate search, becoming more frantic with each passing minute.

During his search he ran into Keith, who instantly began to help by searching every small corner of the castle, and Coran, who began searching the security footage for any sign of the small human. Pidge’s panicked face sat at the front of Shiro's mind as he opened up a vent grate to look inside. She was destroyed at the idea of losing her son and he couldn't bare to see her like that, if Sam was really gone he would have to be strong for her even if she hated him.

“Sam?!” Shiro called again, turning a corner. He paused for a moment to listen for any sounds.

What if he never found Sam? He'd never get to spend any time with his son, he’d never tell him how much he cared for him, how happy he was to be a father or how much love he felt. All of that would never be said, he’d never get to hold him again or speak to him… his son would be gone.

As the thoughts whirled around his head faster than the speed of light he heard a small thumping noise and a gargle from inside one of the vents by his feet. Instantly he dropped to the floor, begging any god that would listen to him that it was Sam down there and not one of the mice doing something weird.

With a clank the grate came off and Shiro was greeted by Sam, lying flat on his stomach, banging his lion on the side of the vent and gnawing off its ear. A wave of relief washed over Shiro as he smiled.

“Hey Buddy, did you learn to crawl?” He said softly as he reached into the vent to try and pull Sam out.

At the sight of the reaching hands, Sam shuffled backwards, further out of reach of his father, gurgling and giggling happily.

“Oh kiddo, this isn't a game. Mommy is very worried about you, so why don't you come to me yeah?” He said softly, reaching in as far as he could go, still unable to even touch the child, who remained just out of reach.

Shiro sat back up with a sigh, trying to figure out how to get him out, just as Keith came speeding round the corner.

“What are you doing on the floor? Did you find him?” Asked Keith, slightly out of breath from his mini marathon around the castle.

“He's in the vent,” responded Shiro.

“How did he get in there?” Keith raised a brow as he sat down next to Shiro to inspect the small child in the vent, still just out of reach.

“No idea, but every time I reach in he shuffles back.”

“Have you tried asking him to come to you?”

“What?” Shiro looked at Keith like he had two heads.

“I’ve seen Pidge and Allura do it. They call his name and ask him to come to ‘mummy’ or Allura, I think they were trying to teach him? Not sure.” Keith shrugged.

Shiro bit his lip as he looked in the vent again, “Sam, come on buddy come to…”

He paused for a second before continuing, “come to Daddy.”

Sam cocked his head slightly in confusion, still with the lion’s ear in his mouth.

“Come on, come to Daddy,” Shiro said with more confidence and it worked.

Sam slowly crawled his way over to Shiro until Shiro could grab hold of him and pull him out. Instantly Shiro held the child to his chest, whispering a small ‘thank god’ as he sat up with him.

Shiro didn't even get to say a word as he entered the hangar before Pidge was running over to him and carefully taking Sam from him. She held him close to her chest, tears still falling from her eyes, her words mushing together in her panicked relief.

“Where did you find him?” Lance asked as he watched Pidge sink to the floor to just hold her son close.

“In a vent. He must have crawled in there and he's probably been wandering around it for a little while,” Shiro said with a small smile, “he didn't really want to come out.”

“Thank you…” Pidge said, her voice breaking as she spoke, “I’m sorry baby… Mummy’s sorry…”

Shiro gave a small nod before heading out of the hanger, trying to stop the tears from coming out of his own eyes, just wanting some time alone.

\---

It took Pidge a small while to find Shiro later on, sitting in his room with his back against the wall trying to wipe away the tears that couldn't be held back. She adjusted her hold on Sam as she sat down beside him.

Shiro sniffled and wiped his eyes with the heel of his hand.

“Sorry I…” he began but he was stopped by Pidge handing him Sam.

“I'm sorry…” Pidge said quietly.

He held Sam close as he looked at her, “for what?”

“For yelling at you, for stopping you from seeing him… for losing him,” Pidge didn't look back, she just stared at her hands as she twiddled with her thumbs.

“You had every right to yell at me and stop me from seeing him, and it is not your fault he wandered off.”

“I fell asleep Takashi, I fell asleep when I should have been watching him… it's just hard…” a small sniffle escaped Pidge as she tightly clutched her hands close to her chest.

“Doesn't make it your fault, you're allowed to get tired. You’re practically doing this by yourself, the others are helping but you’re the one who does everything for him,” Shiro placed his metal hand on her shoulder.

Pidge looked up at him, her eyes puffy and red from her crying, her nose running, “I was just so scared you would take him from me. I used to worry about hating him or not wanting him but now I don't remember my life without him… I couldn't… I can't…”

“Hey,” Shiro fully wrapped an arm around her and pulled her close, “for one I would never try to keep him from you and you will never lose him… but you have to realise it by now Katie, you need a little more help.”

She nodded slightly, looking back at her hands.

“Let me help. When you said he was missing I thought I was going to die, I may not get to spend time with him but I love him, Katie he’s my son just as much as he is yours… so let me help you.”

“Okay…” she rubbed face face with her sleeve.

“Thank you… it will be all on your terms of course, you can decide for how long, if it's an hour or five minutes, I'll do it.”

“An hour… tomorrow just as a start…” she leaned against Shiro, lightly brushing some of Sam’s hair to sit in the right place.

“Okay,” he smiled down at his son who slept in the crook of his arm, “but I have to ask…”

Pidge looked up at him, “yeah?”

“If I'm like 58 minutes and 30 seconds into my hour with him and we have to go save a planet from the Galra or we have to do a good deed, once it's over do I get to spend time with him for a minute and a half to make up my time or is that the end of my time?” He smiled at her.

Pidge shoved him slightly and took Sam back, “we’ll see.”

“So you’re just gonna cheat me out of a minute and a half?” He kept up his playful smile as she got up, “if it happens a lot I'll keep count of the time, redeem it for another hour.”

“Say goodbye to Shiro Sam,” she said heading out of the room, tying her best to hide her smile at his antics.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 3000+ hits!!! Holy shit thank you guys so much for your continued support! It means so much that so many people have read this, its so insane. Can't promise exactly when the proper Shidge action starts but I hope you'll all stick with me for this :)
> 
> As always enjoy and let me know what you guys think!


	18. Father-son Bonding

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shiro finally gets a chance to spend some time with his son but things don't go as smoothly as hoped.

“Okay so he’s already eaten, so he might be sleepy or he might just want to play, I’ve put a snack in his bag in case he wants it but don't force it on him okay? And there are spare diapers in the drawer,” Pidge began as she handed over her back pack, which had now been taken over by baby items, to Shiro.

“Pidge…” said Shiro, interrupting her rambling, not enough to get her to stop but enough to draw her gaze away from Sam as he sat on her hip playing with the ends of her hair.

“He’s probably going to need a change now, oh and if he's made like a real mess of it just throw him in the bath. For a bath it's just a little bit of soap and enough water so it covers his lower area and he gets the rubber toys in the green bag by his towels, just so he has something to play with…”

“Pidge…”

“Oh and you have to watch him all the time when in the bath. He tries to climb out after a while and if he slips he might crack his head open and I really don't want that again. And if he does want to nap keep him awake long enough so you can change him into his pj’s and the monitor is-”

“Katie,” Shiro frowned, carefully taking Sam from her and resting him on his own hip, “it's an hour, I don't think he’ll need every single thing you use and daily bases…”

Pidge returned his frown and crossed her arms over her chest, “you don't know that.”

“I’ve done more than an hour before, we’ll be okay,” Shiro smiled at Sam as he spoke, using his free hand to tickle him a little so he’d laugh and prove to Pidge it would be fine.

“You weren't his dad then…” she said softly, not looking Shiro in the eye.

He gave a small sigh, “I got this. Say bye-bye to Mummy Sam, she's going to do some very important work.”

“Bye Sammy…” Pidge stood tall so she could kiss the top of Sam’s head before she left, “behave yourself okay?”

Shiro took hold of Sam’s arm gently and waved it as Pidge left. Once she was gone he looked at his son’s face with a smile and began to bounce him.

“Now we can have some father-son bonding without any girls around,” he joked as he took a deep breath in and smelt something foul in the air, “right after we get you changed.”

He turned and gently laid Sam down on the changing table before he went to the bag to find the diapers Pidge told him about. Shiro got back to the table just in time to stop Sam rolling off it, and catching him with his metal hand.

“Keep an eye on him, right I see why she said that now…” he sighed as he set about undoing Sam’s buttons so he could get access to the diaper.

At this point Shiro had to use everything in his power to stop himself from vomiting from the smell. It was probably the worst smell imaginable and he struggled to figure out how a creature so small and cute could produce something that smelt so bad. Once everything was open Shiro gave the heaviest sigh imaginable because it was everywhere, mess had gone all over Sam that there was no point it trying to clean it up with any sort of cloth so Shiro quickly grabbed a towel to wrap Sam in, grabbed an extra towel for afterwards, along with the toys and headed off to the baths.

“Okay so enough water to cover his lower area…” Shiro murdered to himself as he filled the bath, “did she say hot or cold water? Might be best with just warm water…”

Sam made a few giggling noises as he was placed in the shallow water with his toys, instantly splashing around with them.

“I'm missing something… soap!” He turned away for a split second to grab the soap and put it into the bath but when he turned back Sam was gone.

In a panic Shiro shot up and began to search around the bath, worried he would find a child with a cracked head laying on the ground but he only found a water trail leading to a vent in the wall. He brought up a screen from the side wall and navigated his way to the vent system, finding exactly where this vent would lead. The kitchen.

Shiro ran in a sprint out the bathroom towards the kitchen. He prayed Pidge wouldn't be there, or anyone for that matter, because if she found out he had looked away for a second she'd probably kill him on the spot. He turned the corner harshly and almost ran straight into Lance.

“Woah Shiro where’s the fire?” Lance said, stopping Shiro in his tracks.

“Not now Lance I have to get to the kitchen.”

“Hey I thought you were supposed to be watching Sam,” Lance raised a brow with a frown, “he not with you?”

“Um no, he’s sleeping right now…” Shiro side stepped around Lance, “yeah I changed him and he fell asleep so don't disturb him please…”

With that Shiro was off again, leaving Lance standing in the hall completely bewildered.

As he entered the kitchen he saw him, Sam sitting in a pile of food goo, rubbing it on his face and chest as he tried to eat it.

“Oh thank the stars…” Shiro said, stepping over to the baby, “you gave daddy a scare kiddo. Come on let's get you changed.”

What happened next was something straight out of a cartoon, Shiro had never imagined this kind of thing would happen in real life. As he picked Sam up, the naked child wriggled and with the food goo covering his body, Shiro lost his grip and Sam fell landing on the floor into another pile of food goo. Shiro in a panic for Sam’s safety leant down and slipped on the food goo, causing his arm to push Sam out of the way as he fell. Still covered in goo, Sam slid across the room,as if he were on ice, straight towards the door. Luckily Keith was walking in just at that moment so Shiro called out for his help.

“Keith stop him!” 

Keith looked down and put his foot out to stop the momentum of the child, who came to a sliding halt just by his foot.

“Grab him before he gets away!” Shiro called, trying to clamber out of the goo to grab Sam.

Keith picked Sam up, holding him at arm's length under his armpits, completely unsure of what was happening and why. Shiro managed to get up and go over to them.

“Thank you…” he tried to catch his breath but then something caught his attention, “Keith, that's not how you hold a baby…”

“Dude I don't know how to hold a kid, I've never had one,” Keith scowled, thrusting Sam back into Shiro’s arms.

Shiro, who was holding Sam the right way, “just,” he sighed, “it's like this. You try.”

Keith’s scowl grew more intense as Shiro tried to hand Sam back, “No, he’s covered in gunk.”

“Keith, come on.”

After a few moments of silence, Keith gave a small grunt of annoyance and took Sam from him.

“There happy?”

“Extremely,” Shiro beamed at his friend, only causing Keith to hand Sam back sooner.

“It's like hot potato with that thing… what even happened in here?” He asked, looking around at the mess of goo that covered everything.

“He escaped… don't tell Pidge…” Shiro said, quietly looking down at the ground.

Keith picked up a cloth and began to clean, “your secret is safe with me.”

The rest of the hour went rather smoothly for Shiro. He bathed Sam, keeping an eye on him this time, and got him into clean clothes. They played peek-a-boo, only once, but only once was enough, as Sam made a break for for the vents again when Shiro covered his eyes, and they played with Sam’s lion toys.

When Pidge found them she was a half hour late, rushing into the room to find Shiro, dozing on the white sofa. She was instantly filled with anger, she didn't see Sam near him nor a baby monitor as she stormed over.

“Shiro where is Sam?!” She snapped, causing him to open his eyes and shush her.

“He’s finally gone to sleep,” Shiro whispered, pointing down at the small rocking car seat that he was rocking with his foot.

Sam was nestled up inside the seat in a deep sleep with his lion toy tightly held in his little arms.

“He’s been on the run for an hour so he needs sleep…”

“Oh…” Pidge said as the anger washed away, “wait on the run?”

“I would look away for a second and he'd be making a break for the vents,” he moved over slightly so she could sit beside him.

She took the offer and looked down at Sam as he slept, “he's like a vent mole…”

“No idea if that's a good thing though,” Shiro smiled, still rocking him with his foot.

“So you lost him?”

Shiro turned to face her, rather quickly, “no. No I didn't lose him.”

“Lance told me you were running frantically through the halls,” she gave him a coy smile, rather enjoying the worry and panic on his face.

“I looked away for a second, I didn't-”

“It's fine. I fell asleep and lost him and you lost him too, we’re even,”

“I don't think that's something for us to one up each other in, Pidge.”

She laughed a little, “I made a small adjustment to the Black Lion’s sensors…”

“Oh thank you.”

“You're welcome,” she stood up and carefully picked Sam up, “so same again tomorrow?”

Shiro smiled wide, “yeah I’d like that.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally some bonding time! The one thing you guys have been asking for since the beginning, other than some real Shidge action.
> 
> Sorry this one is rather late I've been really really lazy with editing and updating stuff but I've done it and hopefully I'll be back into the swing of regular updates soon for you guys :)
> 
> As always enjoy and leave a comment to let me know what you think.


	19. Decisions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pidge asks Shiro about why it took him so long to realise Sam was his and The Blade of Marmora request a meeting with the paladins to decide on another attack against Zarkon.

“Shiro I have to ask,” Pidge said as she pushed another spoonful of goo into Sam’s mouth.

It was a rare morning in the castle, with almost everyone in the dining hall eating breakfast together. Pidge and Shiro sat at one end of the table with Sam, Keith and Lance sat at the other end, Lance trying to get Keith to focus on the wedding scrap book he had been putting together but Keith wasn't that interested, and Hunk somewhere in the middle, munching away without a care in the world.

“Ask away,” Shiro said as he leaned forward over the table to wipe a small amount of goo from the corner of Sam’s face with his thumb.

“I know I didn't tell you but…” She gave a small sigh, “how did it take you so long to realise Sam was yours? I mean add a tiny scar and a white tuft and he looks exactly like you.”

Shiro went quiet for a moment, his cheeks pinking slightly, “I guess it's because when you fell pregnant I had a thing for you.”

Her eyes went wide, “you what?”

“I had a crush and I guess the crush paired with the idea of you being pregnant with someone else’s baby blinded me a little to the fact he could have been mine,” He gently ruffled Sam’s fluffy baby hair, “but that doesn't matter because it’s all sorted now.”

“Wait wait, you have a crush on me?” Pidge said, still slightly baffled.

“Had, past tense.”

Pidge blushed slightly before clearing her throat and turning fully to face Sam, urging him to eat another spoonful. Sam made a small noise of displeasure and moved his head away from the spoon.

“I think he’s done,” Shiro said with a small smile towards his son, “and he did a good job with solid foods, well semi-solid.”

Pidge stood to take Sam out of his chair but Shiro continued to speak.

“Leave him, you should eat too. You’re still feeding him yourself you know…”

“I’m fine and it’s not gonna be for much longer anyways,” she scooped Sam up and held him close to her chest, rubbing his back.

“You’ve gotten good at that.”

“Well six months of practice right?” She smiled lightly and began to head for the door.

Just as she reached the door it slid open and she was greeted by a very serious Allura, Matt and Coran in tow.

“Oh good everyone is here, there is something we urgently need to discuss,” said Allura as she gently moved around Pidge to find a space at the table.

With a sigh, Pidge turned around and sat back down. Shiro gave her a quizzical look and she shrugged before turning her attention to Allura.

“What's up Allura?” Hunk asked, carefully placing his spork down so she had his full attention.

“The Blade of Marmora. They’ve been quiet for some time now but today we received a message from them,” Allura began, “they wish to meet and discuss new plans for another attack against Zarkon.”

“No,” Pidge said, surprisingly firm, “We can't do another big attack like last time.”

“Pidge what are you saying?” Keith said from the other side of the table, “we have to let them at least talk, we need another big push in our favour against Zarkon, too much time has passed he’s regaining his strength.”

“Keith, the situation has changed. Before it was just us, we were a lot more willing to risk our lives for it,” Pidge frowned, looking down at her son, “I have Sam to think about now. We can't be barging into battle with him aboard, if he gets hurt I…”

“Pidge is right,” Shiro said, his arms folded over his chest as he thought, “if something were to happen to Sam or at least something were to happen to me or Pidge…”

“You were so for them last time Shiro,” Keith snapped, his brow furrowed now.

“I’m still for them. It's just right now we don't have the resources to launch another full scale attack. We’re slowly declining their number with our current strategy,” Shiro looked towards Keith.

“I’ve accepted their invitation to propose something,” Allura said, looking around at everyone, “I agree with Keith, it’s been too long since we’ve attacked Zarkon directly, he’s still getting stronger and slowly taking away numbers that he can easily put back isn't working anymore… I know that we all have to think about Sam, but in the bigger picture of things it would be safer for him if we didn't have to fight anymore.”

Pidge fell quiet, watching Sam as he grabbed at her clothes. Just looking at him brought her a small amount of calm in her racing thoughts.

“Fine, but if they suggest something too risky I’m not doing it,” she said before getting up again and taking Sam out of the room with her.

\----

Allura gave the deepest sigh of her life as she scrolled through the castle’s systems. Pidge and Shiro’s words had stuck with her slightly, two people willing to forgo the main objective to protect their child, they sounded just like her father did all those years ago when he put her into cryosleep. A small twitch of pain struck her heart, she missed him so much, even years later it still hurt. To save everyone she had destroyed his corrupted memory long ago and with it any hope of ever seeing him again. She still felt regret for doing it.

So lost in thought, Allura barely noticed the door sliding open and another person stepping into the room.

“Are you okay Princess?” Matt said softly as he walked over to her.

“Oh Matthew,” she carefully wiped the single tear from her eye as he approached, “yes I’m fine, just looking over some diagnostics for the castle.”

Matt nodded slightly, peering round the side of her, “do you mind if I look as well? Coran thinks there is an issue with the left Janipiter… I wanna know what that is before I go try to fix it.”

“Oh well that is actually,” Allura tapped away on the screen before stepping aside to show him, “the highlighted section here, it's responsible for some of the castle's defence systems.”

“Oh I see,” Matt looked at the screen and typed a few things, “the report says it's fine… but I’ll look at it anyway. You can't be too careful.”

Allura nodded and gave him a weak smile.

“And as for you,” he turned to face her, “I don't think this diagnostic report is gonna help me figure out why you're sad.”

“Matthew I’m…”

“Was it something Pidge said? Because I know she's a little stubborn about things but she’ll come around,” Matt gave her the biggest smile he could muster.

Allura gave a defeated sigh, she couldn't keep things from him that's for sure, “it's just Pidge and Shiro reminded me of my father. Willing to risk everything so that their child may live… it just reminded me how much I missed him.” 

“Oh,” Matt looked down at the floor for a moment before looking up at her, “when my Grandfather died I was really upset about it, thought it was unfair, but then my dad said that someone isn't truly gone as long as you remember them.”

Allura smiled softly, “I guess you are right.”

Matt smiled back before turning to the computer to look at a few other things. Allura stood for a moment watching him, he was shorter than her and his wild hair reminding her of Pidge when they first met. She couldn't help be admit to herself that he was actually rather adorable, despite the weird ugly ears humans had for some reason.

As a blush began to grow on her face she shook her head and excused herself, leaving Matt alone with his own thoughts as he thoughts on how beautiful he found Allura to be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gotta throw some show plot into your shidge, it's gotta be done.
> 
> I'm so so so sorry this took so long to get to you all! I've been lazy with this because I was finishing college and working on my other projects but I'll hopefully have more time to focus on this for a little while.
> 
> As always hope you guys enjoy the chapter and let me know what you think!


	20. Coming Up With a Plan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Paladin's work together with the Blade of Marmora to come up with a solid plan for defeating Zarkon once and for all.

Everyone stood in the main control room, surrounding the large display area, as Pidge walked in. The leader of the Blades, Kolivan, gave a deep scowl at her approach as Sam began to make babbling noises in her arms.

“Sorry for the interruption, there was a tiny little accident but we’re good now,” she explained in a way of apology, as Shiro stepped over to take the babbling baby from her.

“I’m sure your accident could have waited,” Kolivan grumbled, turning his attention to the presentation he had displayed on the holographic table.

Pidge frowned deeply and almost stormed over to bite his big head off, but Shiro placed a hand in front to stop her.

“Kolivan. You were saying?” Allura said, trying to draw attention to the plan.

“We need an army, a big one. It may take time to build it but it's the best we have,” Kolivan said, “if we get enough people we can swarm the main ship, then have Voltron destroy the main canons before the paladins go in and face Zarkon. It's becomes much harder for our men on the inside but we think with enough time they can bring down the shields.”

“We’d need a whole fleet… there is no way this castle and our allies so far have enough ships for an army,” Lance frowned, leaning back against the wall.

“That is true but we may-” Kolivan began but he was suddenly interrupted by loud crying.

Shiro rocked Sam slightly, shushing him as he did, “Shhh Sammy it’s okay.”

Pidge stepped over and tried her best to help but Sam only cried louder.

“Irresponsible…” The leader of the Marmora muttered under his breath.

“What was that?” Pidge turned to face him.

“I said it's irresponsible. Who brings a child to a war meeting?” He responded, bitterness clear in his tone, “in fact who even has a child in the middle of a war, you should have thought about your role in all this before that happened.”

Pidge’s face turned bright red from pure rage, she took a few steps towards the much, much larger male alien and did her best to square up to him, “I will have you know I take my role very seriously and just because I have a child doesn't change that role.”

“Oh but it does, you see? You have becomes much weaker, unable to ground yourself,” he smirked, “easily riled.”

“You son of a-” 

“Enough!” One of the blade of Marmora men suddenly spoke, pushing his way between the tiny furious Paladin and his boss.

“What are you doing?” Kolivan snapped.

“Sir with all respect this isn't going to stop Zarkon. He’s our enemy not the paladins of Voltron,” the new Galra carefully took off his mask as he spoke, exposing some very fluffy red panda like ears underneath.

Kolivan took a step back and gave a small sigh, “fine.”

The underling walked over to Shiro, and began to wiggle his ears when Sam looked at him. Almost instantly Sam’s crying was gone, replaced with some sniffles and pure fascination.

“How did you-?” Shiro began to ask, completely baffled by how quickly Sam had settled.

“My kits back home love it, I’ll take him over to the corner and play if you want… let you guys all get on with the meeting,” the Galra held his arms out towards Shiro, who carefully placed Sam in them with a ‘Thank you.’

Once the Galra man had left to sit in the corner and distract Sam, the conversation turned back to more important matters at hand.

“We could build more ships…” Pidge said looking at the plan, “we can ask Olkari for assistance, bring in Slav for plans?”

Shiro scrunched his nose up slightly at the mention of Slav, he remembered every time he worked with him in the last few years ,and every time was absolute hell.

“We would still need to power the ships,” Allura said with a frown, “locating fuel would be expensive…”

“Crystals,” Hunk muttered from his spot in the round, “We can ask the Balmera for help, see if they know of any others nearby.”

“Hunk just wants to see his girlfriend~” Pidge and Lance both teased in unison, forcing Hunk to give the biggest scowl of his life, even as his his face turned a deep shade of red.

“No that could work,” Said Coran, adjusting things on the monitors, “if we get an embassador from the Balmera we are familiar with to vouch for us, others may follow suit.”

“We need pilots though, trained pilots,” Keith interjected.

“We can ask everyone we have helped so far… but that doesn't mean they will be able to pilot any kind of ship,” Kolivan said, watching Coran as he moved the holograms.

“People can be trained right?” Matt suddenly spoke up from the back, “just get those who can fly to teach others, this isn't going to happen over night.”

“Agreed. We shall maintain communications with you through the process. We shall retrieve Slav from his hiding spot, you talk to the Balmerans. We shall approach the Olkari as well to inform them of the plan but to hold on until we have solidified official plans,” Said Kolivan, looking around the room.

“Then it’s settled, we’re going to build an army,” Said Allura, nodding at everything Kolivan said.

\---

“We shall meet again soon Brother,” Kolivan said, gripping onto Keith’s forearm with enough strength to almost knock him aside.

“Of course,” Keith responded, trying his best to mimic the much larger man.

Once the Blade of Marmora men had boarded their ship and left, Keith gave a relaxed sigh. 

“So we’re building an army,” he said, turning to face Lance who was standing at the end of the short hall.

“Looks like it… this better not put a halt to our wedding plans,” Lance gave a small smile.

“Nothing will,” Keith smiled back, walking over and taking Lance’s hand, “Though I will remind you not to get carried away with it, we agreed small.”

“I know I know,” Lance rolled his eyes, “I still need to plan the big one on Earth. My mother will have a cow if I don't do a big one for her… though Kalteneker would finally have a friend…”

Keith shook his head with a small chuckle before kissing Lance softly on the lips, “you and that cow, makes me jealous.”

“Aww don't be jealous, I love you more than my cow.”

“I'm glad,” Keith smiled, entangling his fingers with Lance’s, “hey you think we’ll be going past a space mall anytime soon?”

“Not sure why?” Lance raised a brow as the two began to walk down the hall.

Keith lifted their hands and looked at Lance’s ring finger, “this hand still needs an engagement ring.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just want to give a quick thank you to you all for the 4,000 hits! that's insane to me!  
> Also want to apologies for the hiatus this was on, I had a bit of writer's block with a later chapter that I was working on and it discouraged me from posting a little but with the recent release of season 3 and the new discourse over ages that has re surged in the fandom I felt this would be a good time to get this fic up and running again cause we all need a little bit of cooing at our favourite paladin parents and their sweet little boy!  
> As always thank you for reading, I hope you enjoy the chapter! feel free to leave a comment letting me know what you think, this chapter has some actual show plot in it. Gotta defeat Zarkon at some point!


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